
Qa, 







UNDER TEN FLAGS. 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



WRITTEN WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE NEEDS OF 
YOUNG PEOPLE. 



By Z. T. SWEENEY. 

'f 



1, '/ a^ 




CINCINNATI, O. : 

STANDARD PUBLISHING CO. 

1888, 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



C3 
1 ^^ , 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year i888, by 

Z. T. SWEENEY, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. 



THE LIBRARY 
or COMGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



^0 • a • toluol ■ of • i^vatifuSe • for • f§c • Jn^pirafion 
s^e • §as • cMv ■ hun ■ io • xrn ■ ir] ■ all • goo? • Mnvs, 

5 . bs^icafc ■ l§i5 • Book. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



Two years ago, a number of the personal friends of Isaac 
Errett, editor of the Christian Standard^ presented him with a 
purse, and requested him to take leave of the cares and duties 
of his office, and visit Palestine. They knew that it had been 
one of the most fondly cherished desires of his life to see the 
land made sacred forever by the life and death of our Lord. 
Years ago he wrote a book entitled " Walks about Jerusalem." 
The writing of this book intensified his desire to walk about 
Zion, and go round about her; to tell the towers thereof; to 
mark well her bulwarks, and to consider her palaces. His 
friends believed that a trip of this character, while gratifying a 
lifelong desire, would afford him much-needed rest and refresh- 
ment, both of body and mind. 

When he decided to go, and was casting about for a genial 
and intelligent traveling companion, it was suggested to him 
that perhaps Z. T. Sweeney, Pastor of the Church of Christ in 
Columbus, Ind., could be induced to go with him. He was 
pleased with the suggestion, and wrote to Mr. Sweeney, and 
extended a cordial invitation to accompany him and share with 
him the pleasures and benefits of the trip. Mr. Sweeney 
accepted the invitation. The result justified the wisdom of the 
selection. They traveled together for six months, visiting 
many of the most famous and sacred scenes on earth. The 
reader is respectfully referred to the following pages for an 

account of what they saw and heard and felt. It was the 

iy, ■■■■■■". 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. V. 

intention of Mr. Errett to write an extended Introduction, but 
at the last moment he found himself unable to do so. 

Archibald McLean, 

Cor. Sec. Foreign Christian Miss. Society. 
Cincinnati, O., Nov. 15, 1888. 



PREFACE. 



This book is not intended to be a learned and critical work. 
It is a book of travel — a narrative of what the modern traveler 
in the East sees and hears. The author does not hold himself 
responsible for the truth of all the statements made. He sim- 
ply becomes responsible for the fact that tJie statements are made. 
He was compelled to exercise his own good judgment in. re- 
ceiving the stories and traditions of an ignorant and fanatical 
people, and leaves the same somewhat pleasant task to the 
reader. Many authors feel called upon to eliminate from their 
books all that can not stand the crucial test of historic criticism 
severely applied. While this doubtless enhances the value of 
their works to students and critics, it destroys the charms of 
travel and takes away a large portion of the attractions which 
draw the traveler to those countries. He has in the main, 
however, shown how he views what he saw, and no one who 
reads the book carefully can fail to see when he believes or dis- 
believes what he has seen and heard. Trusting the reader 
may have some of the pleasure in reading that he has had in 
writing it, the book is without further preface placed in his 
hands. 

The Author. 



INDEX TO CHAPTERS. 



NEW YORK TO LIVERPOOL. 

Preparations — Bartholdi Statue — First Disaster — Our Captain — First Ser- 
vice — A Praying Lot — Change of Wind — Gambling — Etruria — Savan- 
nah — The Enghsh i 

IN AND AROUND LIVERPOOL. 

Signals at Sea — God's Signal Service — Minute Guns — Landing — Church in 

Liverpool — Railways in England 7 

A RIDE THROUGH MERRY ENGLAND. 

Liverpool to London — Bugsworth — Rancher — Dove's Hole Tunnel — Mon- 
sal Dale — Chatsworth — Cromford — Arkwright — The Castle — Derby — 
Leicester — Bedford— St. Albans— London 12 

IN AND AROUND LONDON. 

West London Tabernacle — Christian Commonwealth — London Statistics — 

Parliament — Spurgeon — Westminster — St. Paul's 23 

LONDON TO PARIS. 

New Haven — More Liver Trouble — Dieppe — Rouen — William the Con- 
queror — Joan of Arc — Paris — Hotels — History of the City 35 

PARIS THE BEAUTIFUL. 

Place du Trone — Bastile — Place Vendome — Place de la Concord — Guillo- 
tine — Marat — Versailles — Notre Dame— Madeleine — Louvre— Napoleon's 
Tomb — Arch of Triumph 45 

PARIS TO PISA. 

Macon — Modane — Mt. Cenis — Turin — Marengo — -Genoa and Genoese — Statue 
of Columbus — Pisa — Leaning Tower — Cathedral — Lamp — Baptistery — 
Campo Saiito — ^Maria della Spina 5^ 



Viii. INDEX TO CHAPTERS. 

FLORENCE THE GENTEEL. 

Its Name — Climate — History — Culture — Piazza — Vecchio— Savonarola — Log- 
gia — Pitti Palace — Bell Tower — Baptistery — Santa Croce — Immortal 
Dust — Boboli Gardens — Bribery 67 

THE ETERNAL CITY. 

On to Rome — Etruscans — Tiber — Breech-loaders and Pointer Dogs — Carni- 
val — Pagan, Papal and Modern Cities — Capitoline Hill — -Tarpeian 
Rock — Forum — Cloaca — History of City — Via Sacra 80 

ETERNAL CITY— CONTINUED. 

Palatine — Romulus and Remus — Haruspex — Basilica — Feast— Arch of Titus- 
Arch of Constantine — Flavian Amphitheater — Conflicts 97 

APPIAN WAY. 

Roman Roads — Appius Claudius — Virginia — ^Tombs of the Scipios — Colom- ■ 
barium — Catacombs — Teachings of — Tomb of Cecilia Metella — Curiatii 
and Horatii — Cornelia's Jewels — Campagna Life iii 

PAPAL ROME. 

San Angelo — Bridge — St. Peter's — Architecture — Dimensions — Curiosities — 
Popes — St. Andrea — St. John of Lateran — San Pudentiana — Paul's 
Kinsfolk 128 

ROME TO NAPLES 

For Naples — Ceprano — Capua — Hannibal— Naples — Museum— Pompeiian 

Curiosities — Statues— Sculpture 143 

IN AND AROUND NAPLES. 

Vesuvius— Music — Up the Mountain — "The Beautiful" Tirees — Pompeii — 

Water Puteoli — Nero's Baths — Avernus — River Styx — Backing — 

Beneventum—Foggia—Brindisi— Mediterranean Voyage 156 

ALEXANDRIA. 

Alexander the Great— Ptolemy Philadelphus — Pharos— Sostratus' Strata- 
gem — Pompey's Pillar — Diocletian — Fall of the Serapeum — Obelisks — 
Library — Alexandria and New Testament — Hypatia and Cleopatra — 
Cleopatra and the Cjesars — Journey to Cairo — Water Wheels — Boy and 
Sweep-pole 1 74 



INDEX TO CHAPTERS. ix 

CAIRO AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 

Pyramids — Cairo — Ezbekiyeh — Sultan's Palace — Citadel Mosque — Mame- 
lukes — Tombs of Sultans — Tombs of Caliphs— Thos. Cook — Al Azhur — 
Mosque of Amre — Mohammedanism 187 

OUT OF EGYPT. 

Pyramids— Nile Bridge — El Postal — Bedouins — Abdul — Summit — King's 
Chamber — Memphis — Race — Apis Tombs — Mastaba of Ti — Step Pyra- 
mids — Boulac Museum — Shoubra Road — Sweethearts — Goshen — 
Canal 203 

PORT SAID TO JERUSALEM. 

Port Said — Arabs — "No Copper " — Joppa — Hotel — Service— House of Simon 
— English Service — Orange Groves — Horses— Plain of Sharon — Ram- 
leh — Lydda — Valley of Ajalon (Kirjath-Jearim) — Kolonieh — Air-Karim 
— Moab Mountains — First View of City — Valley and Pool of Gihon — 
Joppa Gate , 217 

JERUSALEM. 

First View — Joppa Gate — Tower of David — Pool of Hezekiah — History of 
the City — Jebus — Shishak— Alexander — Population in Herod's time — 
Caliphs — Seljuk Turks— Pilgrims — H(jly Places — Greek Holy Fire — 
Via Dolorosa — Wailing Place — David's Tomb — Church of St. James. . . 232 

BETHLEHEM TO SOLOMON'S POOLS. 

Valley of Rephaim — Rachel's Tomb — Weeping Relatives — Stones — Solo- 
mon's Pools — Water Supply — -Fountains — Solomon's Garden — Etam — 
Frank Mountain — Bethlehem — Church of Nativity — Field of Shep- 
herds — Watch — Boaz and Ruth 254 

DEAD SEA AND JORDAN VALLEY. 

Bare Hills — Mar-Saba — Camp — Night-thoughts — Long Ride — Our Guard — 
Castle of Machaerus — Mt. Nebo — Pisgah — Dead Sea — Jordan — Gilgal — 
Valley of Achor — Ancient Jericho — View from Summit — Fountain of 
Elisha— Nubk 268 

JERICHO TO JERUSALEM. 

Quarantania — Ravens of Cherith — Man that " went down to Jericho" — Sa- 
maritan's Inn — Deep Gorge — Russia — Enshemesh — Bethany — Mt. of 
Olives — Gethsemane — Kedron — Valley of Hinnom — Lepers — Tower of 
David — Communion on Mt. Zion 282 



X. INDEX TO CHAPTERS. 

IN JERUSALEM. 

Characteristics of the City — Harem-es-Sheriff — Mosque of Omar — Mosque 
EI Aksa — Dome of the Chain — Solomon's Seat — Sacred Associations — 
Siege of City — Capture by Titus — Mt. Zion — Communion — Customs — 
Costumes — Classes 297 



JERUSALEM TO SHECHEM. 

Departure — Last View — Reflections — Nob — Gibeah — Ramah — Beeroth — 
Bethel — Ephraim — Robbers' Fountain — Sinjil — Camp — Shiloh — Le- 
boush — Plain of Mukhna — Jacob's Well — Joseph's Tomb — Gerizim — 
Ebal — Samaritan Worship — Pentateuch 310 



NABLOUS TO NAZARETH. 

Valley — Watermills — Samaria — Church of St. John Baptist — Samaritans — 
Herod's Colonnade — History of Siege — Dothan, Jenin — Plain of Es- 
draelon — Mountains of Gilboa — Jezreel — Gideon's Fountain — Saul's last 
Battle — Shunem — Nain — Endor — Caves — Mistake — People — Nazareth — 
Shepherd and Flock — Lord's Day Morning — Service — Carpenter Shop 
of Joseph — Mills — Bake Ovens — Fountain — Church of Nativity — 
Humbugs — Greek Church — View from Hill-summit — Girls' Orphan- ' 
age — Boys' School — Reflections 328 

NAZARETH TO SEA OF GALILEE. 

Departure — Gath-Hepper — Cana — Water Jar — Pilgrims' Horn — Hattin — 
Fall of the Cross — Tiberias — Fishing — Boating — Magdala — Capernaum — 
Bethsaida — Kahn Minyeh — Moonlight Songs and Reflections ^^S 

SEA OF GALILEE TO DAMASCUS. 

Khan Yubb Yusef — Sheep — Harem — Lake Huleh — Dan — Csesarea Philippi — 
Mt. Hermon — Kefr Hauwar — Site of Saul's Conversion — Interesting 
Time — "Fun" — Damascus — Grand Mosque — "Kill or Cure" Foun- 
tain 



552 



DAMASCUS TO BEYROUT. 



House of Rimmon — Street Called Straight — Houses of Judas and Ana- 
nias — Erudition — Christian Quarter — Massacre — Abd-El-Kader — Khans 
and Bazaars — Good-bye Damascus — Fountain of Fijeh — Fishing — Abi- 
lene — Zebdany — Yakfufeh — Baalbec — Kerak-Nuh- — Beyrout — Conder's 
Conclusions ^gn 



INDEX TO CHAPTERS. XI. 

BEYROUT TO EPHESUS. 

Cyprus — Laruaca — Church of St. Lazarus — Rhodes — "Those Isles of 
Greece " — Smyrna — Ephesus — Ancient Church — Temple of Diana — 
Stadium — Seven Sleepers — Theater — Agora — Magnesian Gate — New 
Testament Associations — Church in Smyrna — Farewell to Turkish 
Brethren 382 

SMYRNA TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 

Leaving Smyrna — Alexandria Troas — Troy — Dardanelles — Argonatus — 
Constantinople — Seraglio — St Sophia — Suleiman's Mosque — Hippo- 
drome — Burnt Column — Cistern of Constantine — Janissaries— Khans — 
Dogs — Bosphorus — Castles of Asia and Europe — Capture of Constanti- 
nople 394 

ATHENS AND GREECE. 

Piraeus — Athens — Remains — Acropolis Theater — Odeum — Propylsea — Par- 
thenon — Great Men — Pnyx — Bema — Mars' Hill — Market-place — Prison 
of Socrates — Cave of the Furies — Temple of Jupiter — Eleusis Mys- 
teries — Megara—Kalamaki— Corinth— Acro-Corin thus — Pirene Spring — 
Mycense — Dr. Schliemann — Impressions 410 

VENICE. 

Steeples — Gondolas — Grand Canal — Rialto — History — St. Mark's — Bronze 
Horses — Campanile — Doge's Palace — Arsenal — Palazzo Pesaro — Ca 
d'Oro — Palazzo Manin 437 

VENICE TO BASLE. 

Dissolution — Verona— History — Amphitheater — Cathedral — Juliet's Tomb — 
Milan — Cathedral — Santa Maria — Last Supper — Arch of Peace — 
Como — St. Gothard Railway and Tunnel — Airolo— Lucerne — Lion of 
Lucerne — Organ Recital 454 

BASLE TO COLOGNE. 

Basle — Rhine— Great Men— Church— Library — St. Jacob — Freiburg — Heidel- 
berg — Worms — Luther — Platz — -Mayence — Rhine Steamers — Bingen — 
Bishop Hatto — Coblentz — Andernach— Bonn — Cologne 466 

COLOGNE TO LIVERPOOL. 

Cologne — Cathedral — St. Ursula — St Gereon's Church — Aix-la-Chapelle — 
Brussels — Place des Martyrs — Hotel de Ville — History — ■ Antwerp — 
Cathedral — Artists— St. Jacques — Milk-carts— Plantin- Moretus Printing- 
office — Paris — London — Edinboro— Glasgow — Abbotsford— Good-bye. . . 485 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 

Distress Signals - 8 

Timber and Stone Viaducts. 12 

Dove's Hole Tunnel - 13 

Monsal Dale 13 

Chatsworth.. 14 

Willersly Cutting, __ 15 

Derby Station __- 16 

Bridge over the Trent . 17 

Leicester (Lester) 18 

Tridngular Lodge _. 19 

Widow Wallis' House 19 

Bedford 21 

Houses of Parliament, London _. 25 

Chapel and Mausoleum of Henry VIL, 

Westminster 30 

St. Paul's Cathedral. — Built by Christo- 
pher Wren. _ 33 

Feudal Castle at Rouen 36 

Statue of Joan of Arc — Paris 38 

Julian 40 

Crowning of Charlemagne 41 

Storming of the Bastile _- 46 

The Guillotine - 47 

Jean Paul Marat 48 

The Palace of Versailles 49 

The Cathedral of Notre Dame. — Paris .. 51 
Death of Savonarola. — After a painting 

in the cell of Savonarola.. 69 

Dante Allighieri.. 75 

Michael Angelo Buonarotti 78 

Roman Forum, Restored 84 

Rape of the Sabine Woman. 85 

Titus Flavins Vespasianus. — Rome 88 

Caracalla . 90 

Mark Antony delivering the funeral ora- 
tion over the dead body of Caesar.. 91 

School of Vestal Virgins .*. 95 

Capitoline Wolf q8 

Haruspex Officiating , 99 

Nero. — Rome, Vatican 102 

Tnchnium 103 

Arch of Titus. — Rome 104 

Titus. -Rome, Vatican. t •;- 106 



Page 

Arch of Constantine 107 

The Coliseum. — Rome 108 

The Dead Virginia. — Drawn by H. Vogel. 112 

Outside entrance to Catacombs 114 

Descent fo Catacombs 116 

Martyr Graves 117 

Roman mother teaching her child to kiss 

mark of Christ on his father's 

tomb 1 19 

The Appian Way — Tomb of Csecilia 

Metella 122 

The Oath of the Horatii _. 123 

Cornelia and her Sons 124 

Scene in the Roman Campagna 125 

Campagna Cow-boy 126 

The Castle of S. Angelo — Mausoleum of 

Hadrian _ 129 

Hadrian 131 

Pope Leo XHI 133 

Pius VI 134 

St Peter's Church in Rome 135 

A Madonna by Raphael 139 

The Stratagem of Hannibal at Casilinum. 144 
Quintus Fabius declaring war to the 

Carthaginian Senate 145 

Darius. — Enlarged from the fresco at 

Pompeii 147 

Battle of Issus, Mosaic at Pompeii 149 

Statue of the Emperor Tr Jan. — Naples.. 151 

Socrates. — Naples 152 

The Statue of Julius Caesar 153 

Sacrifice of Mithras 155 

Crater of Vesuvius 157 

To the Top of Mt. Vesuvius 159 

Street of Cornelius Rufus, Pompeii 161 

A Modern Circe 167 

Arch of Trajan 170 

The Pharos of Alexandria. — Restoration 175 

Pompey's Pillar 177 

Caesar at the Grave of Alexander, at 

Alexandria. — Alter the painting by 

H. Showmer 179 

Aritpriiiis ^nd tjlcopatra as Osiris and Isis 183 



XIV. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Map of Egypt i86 

Pyramid at Ghizeh 187 

Snake Charmer 189 

Preaching the Koran 19S 

Ttie Kaaba in Mecca - -- 198 

The Prophet Mohammed -. 199 

Sarcophagus of Menkera, found in the 

tomb of that King at Ghizeh 205 

The Bull Apis 207 

Cambyses Kills the Apis.— Drawn by H. 

Vogel - 208 

Mummy of Rameses II. — Front view 210 

Mummy of Rameses II. — Side view 212 

Horus 213 

"Sweetheart" -- — 214 

Joppa -- - 218 

Napoleon in the Pest-house of Jaffa 223 

Tower of the Forty.. _ - 227 

Ploughing -- 229 

Gideon -- 230 

A View of Jerusalem _ — 233 

Pool of Hezekiah 236 

Entrance of Omar the Great into Jerusa- 
lem -- 239 

Front of Church of the Holy Sepulcher. 243 

The Holy Sepulcher 246 

Walling-place of the Jews 251 

Bethlehem.. -. 255 

Rachel's Tomb - 256 

Solomon's Pools — 257 

Supply-fountain of Solomon's Pools. 258 

The Silver Star over the Birthplace of 

Christ -- 263 

Bedawin - 268 

Bedawin Eating -. 269 

Machaerus -- 274 

Southern End of the Dead Sea, from En- 

gedi - 27s 

Nubk Tree ._ - 279 

Bethany _ — 283 

Entry into Jerusalem 285 

Gethsemane and the Garden of Olives... 287 

Absalom's Pillar _-_ 290 

Tombs of James and Zacharias 291 

Pool of Siloam and Garden Below 292 

The Valley of Gihon 294 

Peasantry _ 298 

Mosque of Omar 299 

Mosque El Aksa 302 

Cisterns of the Sea 303 

Substructions at the Southeast Corner of 

the Haram 304 

Roman Soldiers Firing the Temple at 

Jerusalem _ 305 

Gibeah 311 

The Tabernacle , 316 

How they Do It out West 319 

Sacred Rock of Samaria 323 

Samaritans at Worship on Mt. Gerizim .. 324 



Herod's Colonnade at Samaria 330 

Shepherd 337 

Well at Nazareth .- 339 

Carpenter Shop in Nazareth 340 

Millstones ■ 341 

Village Bake-oven __ _ 342 

Galilee Boats _ 347 

Site of Capernaum 348 

Ruins of a Synagogue, Capernaum 350 

Traveling Harem. 353 

Harem Guard 357 

Southern Gate of Cassarea Philippi 359 

In the Arena at Caesarea Philippi.. 361 

Tomb of the Head of John the Bap- 
tist 367 

The " Street called Strai.ght " __ 369 

The Compromise 371 

Khan at Damascus 373 

Stone in the Quarry at Baalbec 378 

Homer - _. 383 

A Stork on a Ruin 385 

Diana ._ . 386 

Croesus Showing Solon his Treasures 387 

Diana of the Ephesians _ 388 

Heroes of t'ne Trojan War 395 

The Argonauts 397 

Prayer-crier _ 401 

The Arabs Crossing the Bosphorus _ 405 

Entry of Mohammed II. into Constanti- 
nople 4oq 

Harbor at Piraeus __ 411 

The Acropolis at Athens, Restored 413 

Minerva.. 415 

Aristotle and his Pupd.. __ 417 

Diogenes 419 

Demosthenes _ 420 

Last Hours of Socrates. — After the Paint- 

mg by David 421 

INIars' Hill _ 423 

Jupiter Olympius 424 

Eleusinian Feast 425 

Remains of Ruined Temple at Corinth 427 

The Rape of Proserpine 429 

Lions' Gate, Mycenae 431 

View of the Acropolis at Corinth '. 433 

Hera — 434 

Venice _ 436 

Ponte Rialto 438 

St. Mark's Cathedral, Venice 441 

Colleoni Statue, Venice. _ 443 

Doge's Palace, from the Water 445 

Palazzo Pesaro, Venice 447 

Palazzo Ca d'Oro 449 

Palace Manin, Venice 451 

Palace of the Doge 452 

The Cathedral at Milan 457 

" The Last Supper " 461 

Erasmus 466 

Preachers of the Reformation 468 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



XV. 



John Wickliffe. — From the Luther Statue 

in Worms 471 

Statue of Huss. — Luther Statue, Worms. 473 

Martin Luther _ 474 

Jean Calvin _ 476 

Germania Mon-ument 478 

Chamber of Horrors 480 

Andernach 482 

The Interior of the Church 482 

Cologne Cathedral 487 



The Bodies of Egmont and Horn Lying 

in State and Being Viewed 491 

William the Silent 493 

Duke of Alva 494 

Quentin Matsys' Well, Antwerp 495 

The Steen in Antwerp _ 499 

The Tower of London 501 

Windsor Castle 502 

Edinburgh, Scotland 503 

Holyrood Palace _.. 505 

Castle of Edinburgh _ 506 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



NEW YORK TO LIVERPOOL. 

At three p. m., Saturday, Jan. 23, 1887, we had finished all 
our preparations for a mid-winter Atlantic voyage, and were 
standing in the music-room of our ship — the Unibria, one of 
the finest, largest and most powerful of the North Atlantic 
squadron — bidding good-bye to the many friends who had 
assembled to see us off To some of them, alas ! it was, on 
earth, an eternal farewell. Our passenger list was unusually 
large for the winter, as the list of the Adriatic, of the White 
Star Line — which was to have sailed the Thursday previous — 
was transferred, for some reason, to our steamer. There were 
on the ship at this time at least three thousand persons, and it 
seemed to me that everybody was going abroad ; but when the 
last alarm had sounded, the hurried farewells were given, and 
when our vessel had rounded out past the end of the dock 
more than four-fifths had been left behind. 

We sailed, or rather were ignominiously pulled down the 
harbor by a tug-boat, in the midst of a heavy fog till we passed 
a shadowy object looming up on our right had, which we were 
informed was the Bartholdi Statue of Liberty Enlightening the 
World. Poor Liberty ! She is often enveloped in fogs and 
mists, while attempting to hold her blazing torch athwart the 
pathway of her enslaved and enslaving children. We had scarcely 
passed the statue before we met with our first ' ' disaster at 
sea." Our ship went to the bottom, for the good and sufficient 
reason that she was drawing twenty-six feet of water, while the 
harbor at that place was only twenty feet deep. The accident 



2 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

occurred because of the displacement of the buoys ; they had 
been anchored down by heavy weights, and the ice-cakes which 
had formed around them had floated them from their places, and 
we were thus led out of the channel. We were detained till 
daylight next morning, and were not out of sight of land till 
the morning was well advanced. At eleven o'clock the Eng- 
lish Church service was read by Captain McMicken. 

I was not particularly impressed by Capt. M. as a Chris- 
tian man or minister. He was a large, round, ruddy faced old 
tar, who had just celebrated his four hundredth voyage across 
the Atlantic a few evenings previous by a grand champagne 
supper, at which many of the N. Y. millionaires and magnates 
were present. It seemed to me that he would be more at 
home at a champagne supper than at a church service, but is 
certainly the man to impress you with the fact that he is able 
to run a ship. He is said to be one of the best captains in the 
Cunard Line service. 

The sailors have the impression that when Neptune begins 
to play his pranks, all that is necessary to quiet him, is to see 
the glowing face of Capt. M. shining over the side of the vessel, 
and to hear his rough voice of command, "Neptune, you ras- 
cal, keep still there, sir! " The sailors were all out in uniform 
at the service, and led in the songs and responses like good 
churchmen. I was never a great admirer of the Episcopal 
service at home, but on that Sunday morning, when we were 
leaving all behind us and starting on a landless voyage of 
thousands of miles, it seemed to me perfectly adapted to the 
occasion, and when we came to the petition for those at sea I 
think every one joined in heartily ; in fact, everybody seemed 
in a praying humor that morning. There were many persons on 
board that drank and gambled all day long, but when they lay 
down in the night and heard the awful roar of the great waves 
and the gurgling of the water around their port windows, I 
am certain they called upon God ; in Avhich they were evi- 
dently somewhat like the small boy who, when asked by the 
Dominie if he was a praying boy, replied, "Yes, sir ; I pray 
every night." "But do you not pray in the day?" "No, 
sir ; any smart boy can take care of Jmnself in the daytime. 



NEW YORK TO LIVERPOOL. 3 

The first two days out were delightful, and we all felt encour- 
aged. The tables were full and the stewards and waiters were 
in despair. Monday night the wind changed and blew from 
the south-east. At sea, the change of the wind means a great 
deal more than it does on the land. 

The next morning the ship was rolling fearfully, and but 
few ladies and not half the gentlemen were at breakfast ; from 
that time it was one continuous roll till we reached Queens- 
town. It was at times dangerous to be on deck, and the 
vessel seemed to behave like a huge rocking-horse under 
the whip and spur of some giant. Bro. Errett seemed to 
stand it all with perfect composure ; in fact, his spirits seemed 
to rise with the storm. I was not at all seasick, but I had a 
slight attack of ^^ stomach trouble" one very bad day. 

The Cunard Line is one of the best crossing the North At- 
lantic, but there was one feature against which I feel bound to 
utter a protest. The "smoking room " contains a bar, which 
is kept bus)^ from early morn till late at night. After tea that 
room is turned into a gambling hell, where dissipation of all 
kinds is freely encouraged. One young man going over with 
us was induced to drink and bet freely, and then borrowed and 
bet again, till, when he neared land, he found himself with- 
out a penny and badly in debt. Stung by his friendless and 
desolate condition, he attempted to jump overboard, and was 
only accidentally prevented. 

On another occasion a lady was badly frightened by cries of 
murder near her stateroom door, resulting from these drunken 
orgies. I blush to say that the master spirit in all this was a 
gentleman whose name on the list was preceded by the title, 
" Hon." I was informed that he had been in the civil service 
of my own country, and had considerable reputation at home. 
Now, if the smoking-room of the steamers of this line is to be 
turned into such a place, I suggest they put up the proper sign 
over the door and call it gambling hell at once. I also think 
it right that parents sending sons across the ocean should be 
informed as to the influences to which they expose them by this 
line. Notwithstanding, they certainly possess the largest and best 
steamers in the North Atlantic service ; thirteen of us wrote 



4 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

out a protest against this sort of treatment and gave it to the 
Liverpool papers. It was copied largely by the London 
dailies, as also the American papers. On our return, I was 
gratified to notice placards in the smoking-room prohibiting 
gambling or indecent language, and asking the co-operation of 
the passengers in preventing it. 

The Umbria and Etruria are the largest and finest vessels 
of the line, and are probably the best steam vessels afloat. 
As many of my readers will probably never take an ocean voy- 
age, a few facts in connection with one may be interesting. I 
condense what follows from some of the published statements 
of the Cunard Line : 

The Etruria was built in 1885. She has averaged a speed 
of 18 knots an hour in nine consecutive voyages between 
Queenstown and New York, which is equal to nearly 21 statute 
miles per hour, or somewhat greater than the average speed 
of the ordinary train service on any railway in the world. Our 
last day out on the return voyage she averaged 21 knots an hour. 
Her total consumption of coal is 300 tons per day, or 12 tons per 
hour, 465 pounds per minute; and if the whole of the fires 
were raked together and formed into one large fire there would 
be 42 tons of coal, or a mass 20 feet long, 20 feet broad, 
and rather more than 4 feet high. Besides the coal, 130 
gallons of oil are used daily for journals, bearings, etc. 
Her crew is made up as follows : The captain, 6 officers, sur- 
geon, purser, 46 seamen, carpenter and joiner, boatswain and 
mate, 2 masters at arms, 12 engineers, 112 firemen and trim- 
mers, 72 stewards, 6 stewardesses, 24 cooks, bakers and assis- 
tants ; in all 287 hands. The amount of provisions, groceries, 
etc. , on board at the time of sailing are very large. For a 
single passage to the westward the Etruria, with 547 cabin 
passengers and a crew of 287 persons, had, when leaving Liv- 
erpool on 28th August last, the following quantities of provis- 
ions: 12,550 lbs. fresh beef, 760 lbs. corned beef, 5,230 lbs. 
mutton, 850 lbs. lamb, 350 lbs. veal, 350 lbs pork, 2,000 lbs. 
fresh fish, 600 fowls, 300 chickens, 100 ducks, 50 geese, 80 
turkeys, 200 brace grouse, 15 tons potatoes, 30 hampers vege- 
tables, 220 quarts ice cream, 1,000 quarts milk, and 11,500 



NEW YORK TO LIVERPOOL. § 

eggs. In groceries alone there were over 200 different articles, 
including (for the round voyage of 22 days) 650 lbs. tea, 1,200 
lbs. coffee, 1,600 lbs. white sugar, 2,800 lbs. mixed sugar, 750 
pulverized sugar, 1,500 lbs. cheese, 2,000 lbs butter, 3,500 
lbs. ham, 1,000 lbs. bacon. The foregoing seem enormous 
quantities, but very little was left upon the ship's arrival in 
port. 

Lemons are used at the rate of i yi per head per day ; 
oranges 3 per head per day; and apples when in season, at the 
rate of 2^ per head per day. The quantities of wines, spirits, 
beer, etc., put on board for consumption on the round voyage, 
comprise, 1,100 bottles champagne, 850 bottles claret, 6,000 
bottles ale, 2,500 bottles porter, 4, 500 bottles mineral water, 
650 bottles various spirits. Crockery is broken very exten- 
sively, being at the rate of 900 plates, 280 cups, 438 saucers, 
1,213 tumblers, 200 wine glasses, 27 decanters, and 63 water 
bottles in a single voyage. As regards the consumption on 
board the fleet for one year we can almost say that their sheep 
and oxen "feed on a thousand hills," for they consume no less 
than 4,656 sheep, 1,800 lambs, and 2,474 oxen — an array of 
flocks and herds surpassing in extent the possessions of many 
a pastoral patriarch of ancient times. 

This is equivalent to 2,091,754 lbs. of meat, or 4 lbs. per 
minute. They consume 831,603 eggs, or more than i^ per 
minute; and they drink 21,000 lbs. of tea in the year, and 
71,770 lbs. of coffee, sweetened by 296, 100 lbs. of sugar ; while 
the following articles also figure largely : i ^ tons of mu.stard, 
i^ of pepper, 7,216 bottles of pickles, 8,000 tins sardines, 30 
tons salt cod and ling, 4,192 four-lb. jars jams, 15 tons mar- 
malade, 22 tons raisins, currants and figs, 13 tons split peas, 
15 tons pearl barley, 17 tons rice, 34 tons oatmeal, 460 tons 
flour, 23 tons biscuit, 33 tons salt, 48,902 loaves of bread, 8 
lb. each, 53 tons hams, 20 tons bacon, 15 tons cheese, 930 tons 
potatoes, 24,075 fowls, 4,230 ducks, 2,200 turkeys, 2,200 
geese, 31,342 tablets Pears' soap, 3,484 lbs. Windsor soap, 10 
tons yellow soap. Their passengers annually drink and smoke 
to the following extent: 8,030 bottles and 17,613 half 
bottles champagne, 13,941 bottles and 7,310 half bottles claret, 



e AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

9,200 bottles other wines, 489,344 bottles ale and porter, 
174,921 bottles mineral waters, 34,400 bottles spirits, 34,360 
lbs. tobacco, 63,340 cigars, 56,885 cigarettes. The heaviest 
item in their annual consumption is coal, of which they 
burn 356,764 tons, or almost 1,000 tons for every day in 
the year. This quantity of coal, if built as a wall four feet 
high and one foot thick, would reach from the Southern point 
of England to the Northern point of Scotland. Their con- 
sumption of engine oil is 104,043 gallons; of burning oils, 
23,020 gallons ; of paint oil, 9, 290 gallons ; of waste, 90 tons ; 
of white lead, 51 tons; of red lead, 12 tons. With respect to 
the aggregate employment of labor by the Cunard Company, 
it requires 34 captains, 146 officers, 628 engineers, boiler- 
makers and carpenters, 665 seamen, 916 firemen, 900 stewards, 
62 stewardesses, 42 women to keep the upholstery and linen 
in order, with i, 100 of a shore gang; or about 4,500 people to 
run their ships, which traverse yearly a distance equal to five 
times that between the earth and the moon. 

Read the above and then go back seventy years 
and see Capt. Moses Rogers start out from Savannah, Ga., on 
the Savannah, the first steam vessel to cross the ocean. She 
carried only 380 tons burden (the Etruria is 8,000 tons), and 
crossed the Atlantic in 25 days. She was a great astonishment 
to the English people, and long before she cast anchor her 
decks were crowded with people. The English are now claim- 
ing the British packet, Rob Roy, was the first to cross. Just 
like the English, for all the world ; they will resist the introduc- 
tion of an American invention until compelled to accept it, 
then complacently refer to it as an English affair, while the 
whole world, aside from the English, knows better. 



IN AND AROUND LIVERPOOL. 

I was very much impressed by the various signals at sea. 
Having spent nearly all my life on land, I was not aware how 
much depended upon them. They are about as necessary to 
ships as speech to individuals ; in fact, it is the language of 
ships. It is a curious fact, that God himself seems to have 
been the author of the firbt signal service. He said unto 
Moses, " Make thee two trumpets of silver for the calling of 
the assembly, and if they blow but with one trumpet then 
shall the princes of thousands (colonels) gather themselves 
unto thee ; when ye blow an alarm the camps that lie on the 
east parts shall go forwards ; when ye blow an alarm the sec- 
ond time, the camps that lie on the south side shall take their 
journey." They also had a large iron framework surmounting 
a pole very similar to that which is used by our river steamers 
for night service. For two thousand years but little improve- 
ment was made upon the above ; but in later years more than 
thirty governments, embracing all the maratime powers, have 
entered into an elaborate system for ships by day and by night. 

Distress signals are, however, susceptible of great improve- 
ment. One of the distress signals which has always- been and 
is now used, is the well known " minute-gun at sea. " It is a 
most effective way of calling for assistance ; but it is sometimes 
unfortunately the case that the gun provided for the purpose is 
made a receptacle for all sorts of odds and ends, even, as has 
been recently stated, for the swabs used in washing the deck ; 
the powder has perhaps made as many voyages as the ship, and 
is damp and useless ; and so, when the gun is wanted, it can- 
not be fired. This reminds me very much of some men's relig- 
ion, which they take on early in life, and which is of about as 
much service in the hour of distress. Besides the minute-gun, 
the new act prescribes, as signals of distress, rockets or shells 

7 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



of any color or description, fired one at a time at short inter- 
vals ; and also flames on the ship such as would be produced 




DISTRESS SIGNALS. 



by a burning tar-barrel. The signals calling for pilots prescrib- 
ed for the sake of distinction, in order that they may not be 
mistaken for danger signals, are a blue light every fifteen min- 
utes, and a bright white light flashed at frequent intervals for 
about a minute at a time. It is also provided, that If distress 
signals are used improperly, the person responsible is liable to 



IN AND AROUND LIVERPOOL. 9 

pay compensation for any labor, risk or loss caused to any one 
who responds to the supposed call for assistance. It will thus 
be seen that, so far as public authorities are concerned, the im- 
proved system of signals at sea puts navigation on a safe foot- 
ing. 

As soon as a ship sights the first Irish light-station it sends 
up a signal representing its name, and this is at once tele- 
graphed to Liverpool and London. The safe passage of a ship 
is thus known 24 hours in advance of landing at Liverpool. 

On arriving at Liverpool we met with a cordial English 
welcome from a number of brethren and sisters who had gath- 
ered to receive us. It had been arranged that Bro. Errett 
should speak at Birkenhead Sunday a. m., and I at Liverpool, 
but as we did not arrive till three p. m., and did not get 
through the Custom House till five p. m., we were barely in 
time for the evening service, which begins in all English 
churches at 6:30 p. m. the year round. Bro. Errett spoke in 
Birkenhead at night, and I essayed to speak at the church in 
Liverpool, but was greatly bothered by the — to me — unnatural 
steadiness of the house. If the chapel could have been put on 
rockers and kept moving by some powerful hand, I am sure I 
could have preached a much better sermon, even if it had 
not received such close attention. 

The church in Liverpool is in fine working order, under the 
wise and able management of Bro. A. Martin. It was a de- 
lightful taste of the first fruits of the F. C. M. S., and kindled 
new enthusiasm in my heart for our missionary enterprises. 

Liverpool was, a few centuries ago, a little fishing village 
of the most wretched character, situated in a marshy locality 
abounding in numberless ponds, or pools. It takes its name from 
one of them, which was called the " liver pool, " owing to the 
great quantities of the "liver " birds that frequented it. At 
the time of the Revolutionary war its population did not 
exceed 40,000 persons ; it has since grown very rapidly, till it is 
now the second city in size in the United Kingdom, and the 
largest seaport of the world. 

It has about 200 acres of docks, nearly 20 miles of quays. 
About one- third of its trade is with the United States There 



lO AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

being nothing of special interest in Liverpool^ at 9 a. m, next 
day we started by the Midland R. R. for London. This road 
carries only first and third class passengers. They both travel in 
the same car, and consequently ride upon the same springs and 
by the same train. The first class is upholstered in dark green, 
and the third is dark gray cloth. This was all the difference, 
so far as I could see. The greatest difference is in price of 
tickets, one being seven dollars and the other four. The first 
class is for the aristocracy of England, who do not wish to 
mingle with the "vulgah crowd." Occasionally there is an 
American with so little sense as to do it because it is "so Eng- 
lish, you know." That these are not all dead was proved 
by one of our passengers on the Umbria. She was a beautiful 
young lady, daughter of one of our prominent business men of 
America, whose name is familiar in nearly every town in the 
United States where there is a tekgraph office, who was crossing 
over to be married to the fifth son of one of Ireland's "Lord 
No-bodies." Her father had agreed to pay the debts of the 
young man, which, according to his own confession, were fifty 
thousand pounds. 

Of course we objected very seriously, as every American 
does, to the abridgment of our liberties in locking us in the 
cars, which are entered from the side, instead of the end as in 
this countr)-. 

We also greatly missed the water tank and closet that are 
the necessary accompaniments of all American cars. We found 
some compensation, however, in the unmitigated freedom from 
the eternal clatter, "Peck's Sun," "Texas Siftings," "Puck," 
"Judge," etc. Whatever defects the English railways may 
have, the news-boy nuisance is not one of them. Then, too, 
in large stations like St. Pancras, in London, where trains are 
arriving and departing every five or ten minutes, cars having 
a number of doors in the side are so much more easily filled 
and emptied than ours. On the whole, I think the English 
cars better adapted to the needs of the English public than the 
American would be. 

The ride from London to Liverpool is one of the finest in 
the world, especially if the traveler should be so fortunate as 



IN AND AROUND LIVERPOOL. II 

to get his ticket via the Midland, which certainly possesses 
more historic associations than any other direct route. The 
only comparison I can think of would be a day's journey 
through some of our large artificial parks in America, such as 
Fairmount, of Philadelphia, or Druid Hill Park, of Baltimore. 

The day was exceptionally fine, the sun shining nearly all 
the time, and we had an unusually good opportunity to see the 
country. We had not travelled very far until we found 
the road-bed vastly superior to any American roads. There 
are none of those sudden curves and slanting tracks, that make 
you feel as though the cars were going to tip over; this fact 
gave rise to a pleasant retort made by an American lady to an 
English gentleman who was lauding the superiority of English 
road-beds. " We English people, " he remarked, " build roads 
for eternity, while you Americans only build for the present," 
"True enough, sir," she replied, "but as we Americans ex- 
pect to travel with wings in eternity, we shall have no use for 
railroads." Witty enough ; but it does not improve our road- 
beds. 



A RIDE THROUGH MERRY ENGLAND. 

.The line from Liverpool to London runs nearly east for 
about forty miles, and crosses what was formerly an impassable 
bog called Chat Moss ; it was a vegetable pulp, and in some 
places so soft as to be dangerous to travellers. Civilization is 
gradually redeeming it, and it is now largely replaced by rich 
pastures. After leaving Bugsworth Tunnel we passed over a 




'Jfe'^, 





TIMBER AND STONE VIADUCTS. 



timber viaduct, and observed another of stone. In 1866 Eng- 
land had been drenched with rain, and every little stream was' 
swollen until it was a river. A land-slide occurred here, carry- 
ing away sixteen acres, and with it trees, houses, and everything. 
An Enghsh farmer described the scene thus, "A goods 
train ran over the viaduct, if I recollect right, that morning ; 
but it was the last. That day and the day after this road was 
all of a move ; the walls were cracking dowm, the fences were 
going, the whole hillside seemed of a move, and when the 



A RIDE THROUGH MERRY ENGLAND. 



13 



paving stones of the cottage floor began to stand up on end, I 
told my missus it was time we were moving^ His description 





^■^■A\A\xt'''<-f-' 



DOVE S HOLE TUNNEL. 



reminded me somewhat of the rancher out in the Rocky- 
Mountains who lived on the hillside with a neighbor's ranche 




MONSAL DALE. 



lying just above; one morning there came a land-slide, and 
seeing his neighbor's house, barn and farm come sliding down 



14 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



the hill he " lit out." His neighbor's farm stopped just over 
his, and then came a suit for the possession ; the judge render- 
ed a verdict in favor of the defendant, because the plaintiff did 
not stay and hold possession of his ranche. 

A man who would stay under either of the foregoing cir- 
cumstances would have pretty good "staying qualities." 

Shortly after leaving the viaduct, our train rushed into 
Dove's Hole Tunnel. It is more than a mile and a half in 
length, and pierces the mountain range lying between us and 
the South of England. In digging this tunnel an under-ground 
river was discovered. In 1872 the whole end of the cutting 
fell in, entirely filling up the tunnel ; it was remedied by the 
stone archway shown in the engraving. 

After passing through the tunnel we entered what is known 
as Monsal Dale, which is a bright little valley, and was really 
one of the prettiest pictures of English rural life along the line. 
From the car window we could look out upon the fertile hill- 
sides sloping down in vernal beauty to the brook below, dotted 
here and there with pretty cottages, singly and in clusters, • 
through which the little stream ran its silvery course to the sea. 




CH ATSWORTH. 



It is called by the English "The Arcadia of the Peaks," 
and its beauties have furnished fruitful themes for all writers 



A RIDE THROUGH MERRY ENGLAND. 



15 



who have attempted to describe this magnificent Derbyshire 
scenery. A little farther on we arrived at Rowsley, which is 
the station for Chatsworth, one of the country residences of 
the Duke of Devonshire. 

It crowns a beautiful grassy knoll which overlooks the 
meadows that border the sides of the lovely Derwent river. 

We did not take the time to visit this ducal estate, but one 
who did says of it: "At Chatsworth may be found whatever 
taste and wealth, art and nature can do to create a palace meet 
for a king." 

The park which surrounds Chatsworth is nearly twelve 
miles in circumference. A short distance beyond we passed 
Oker Hill, a corruption of Occursus hill of conflict. Here the 
Romans built a fort, to hold in subjection the turbulent natives 
during the period of their occupation ; at the Southern end are 
two sycamore trees, planted by two brothers who parted here 




WILLERSLY CUTTING. 



forever. The readers of Wordsworth will remember the story. 
The next place of importance is Cromford, known as the 
*'Cradle of cotton manufacture." It was the home of Richard 



i6 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



Arkwright. He was the thirteenth chile of a poor laborer 
in the North of England. 

He was early in life a barber's apprentice, but living in the 
midst of a cotton spinning community, was drawn into inven- 
tions for improving that system of labor. He soon invented 
the celebrated spinning frame, which has not since been ma- 
terially improved upon. He became the richest commoner in 
England, and was knighted by George HI. 

Willersly Castle was founded by him, and is a large build- 
ing, very much like the old baronial castles of England. It is 
seen shortly after emerging from Willersly cutting, which in 
winter time, when covered with ice, looks like a silver frosted 
avenue. Shortly after passing Cromford one can obtain a view 
of Lea Hurst, the home of Florence Nightingale. It is a quaint 
old structure, covered with ivy and overlooking the Derwent 
valley. 

Now comes Derby Station, or, as it is pronounced by the 
English, "Darby." A curious story was told me by an Eng- 
lish gentleman, to account for the mispronunciation. On one. 





Y STATION. 



occasion the Queen happened to pronounce the name Avrongly, 
and none of the courtiers would dare to pronounce it dif- 



A RIDE THROUGH MERRY ENGLAND. 



17 



ferently after the Queen had spoken ; so it has been called 
Darby ever .since. Its original name was North-Worthington, 
but was changed by the Danes to Deorboy, and in process of 
time it became Derby. Derby day— one of the greatest in 
England — is when the Derby stakes are run for. They were 
established by Smith Stanley, the twelfth Earl of Derby, in 
1780, and occur the second Wednesday of the spring races in 
May of each year. 

It is one of the centers of communication in England, but 
possesses little of interest to the traveller. 

A few miles beyond Derby we reached Borrow-ash ; it is a 
corruption of Barrow-ash, or "Ashes of the Barrow." Years 
ago were found here a number of human skeletons — nearly a 
hundred in all — some of them being of colossal size. They 







UKIDGE OVER THE TRENT. 



were all placed due East and West, and with them were found 
many amulets, charms, and relics in gold-lined boxes. In the 
skull of one was found an arrow-head. They are supposed to 
have been buried here previous to the Roman conquest, and 



1 8 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

were very probably cotemporaneous with the Mound Builders 
of our own country. After leaving Borrow-ash we crossed the 
Trent over one of the most .massive and handsome railroad 
bridges I ever saw. It presents such a contrast to the frail 
death-traps of our own country that I give a picture of it. 
There are no Ashtabula disasters in England. 

About forty miles south of Derby we came to Leicester 
(Lester). This is one of the historic spots of England. 




LEICESTER (LESTER). 



Here was the seat of a Druid temple, with its human sacri- 
fices. It has been successively a stronghold of the Romans, 
Saxons, Danes, and Normans. From this place Richard the 
Third rode out to the battle of Bosworth Field, and to it his 
lifeless body was brought back, "trussed behind a pursuivant at 
arms, like a calf— his head and arms hanging upon one side of 
the horse, and his legs upon the other, all besprinkled with 
mire and blood." This battle ended the celebrated war of the 
Roses, and elevated Henry VII. to the throne. 

When our train was pulling out of Rushton Station we 
looked out of the car window upon the right, and saw the 



A RIDE THROUGH MERRY ENGLAND. 



19 



queerly constructed Triangular Lodge, built by Sir Thomas 
Tresham. Here was concocted the conspiracy of "The Gun- 




TRIANGULAR LODGE. 



powder Plot;" and certainly no better building could have 
been erected for such a purpose, its singular form and isolation 
completely excluding all eavesdroppers. Just as the train en- 
tered Kettering, an Eng- 
lishman directed my at- 
tention to a plain, old- 
fashioned dwelling with 
three dormer windows, 
which at once made my 
heart leap with enthu- 
siasm. 

On the 2nd day of 
October, 1792, a company 
of ministers met in the town of Kettering, to devise means for 
the spread of the gospel. Wm. Carey uttered, that day, his 
two since famous mottoes, " Expect great things from God," 
and "Attempt great things for God." His text was, "En- 
large the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the cur- 
tains of thine habitations ; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and 
strengthen thy stakes ; for thou shalt break forth on the right 




WIDOW WALLIS HOUSE. 



20 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

hand and left ; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and 
make the desolate cities to be inhabited." • Retiring to the 
home of a widow — -Beebe Walhs — twelve ministers organized 
a foreign missionary society, and made a contribution of 
sixty-five dollars. This was a small beginning, but the next 
year saw Carey in India ; and thus started the grandest impulse 
the Church of Christ ever experienced, viz : The English- 
speaking universal evangelization of the world. In our after 
travels, we often witnessed the harvests of this first-fruits. In 
the land of the Pharaohs ; In the Holy Land, from Joppa to 
Tiberias ; and in Syria, from Beyrout to Damascus ; on the 
banks of the Leontes and Bosphorns ; under the shadow of 
the Acropolis, and by the grave of Polycarp, everywhere, we 
saw the neat cottage home of the missionary, teaching by 
model, purity and love, neatness and truth ; but none seemed 
fairer to rre than the white cottage of Widow Wallis, now oc- 
cupied as a "Baptist Mission House," where was waved be- 
fore the Lord the "first fruits " of a harvest of millions of dol- 
lars consecrated to the service of God. 

A short distance south of Kettering, and intimately con- 
nected by religious association, is Bedford. It has no charms 
except its pleasant locality and historic memories. It is known 
to the children of the world as the home of John Bunyan, the 
immortal tinker. The old jail on Bedford Bridge, where he 
was confined for twelve years, and where he wrote "The Pil- 
grim's Progress," is no more. The chapel in which he minis- 
tered for seventeen years is rebuilt. The new one, however, 
contains a chair, which Bunyan used. A statue of Bunyan 
stands on St. Peter's green, in the town, and the church has 
an elegant bronze door, with panels representing scenes in " Pil- 
grim's Progress" both, the gift of the Duke of Bedford. Lord 
Macaulay, in his essay on Southey's edition of "Pilgrim's Pro- 
gress, " says : ' ' We are not afraid to say, that though there were 
many clever men in England during the latter part of the seven- 
teenth century, there were only two creative minds. One of 
these produced the 'Paradise Lost,' and the other the 'Pil- 
grim's Progress.' " 

Bedford is probably surrounded by as many interesting 



A RIDE THROUGH MERRY ENGLAND. 



21 



places as any town in England. One mile from it is Elstow, 
the birthplace of Bunyan. Two miles away is Cardington, 
where is the house once occupied by John Howard, the philan- 
thropist. Turvey, seven miles away, is the scene of the labors 




of the author of "The Dairyman's Daughter." Cople, four 
miles distant, is where Butler wrote " Hudibras." Ampthill, 
which recalls the unhappy memories of Catherine of Arragon, 
is only eight miles distant. 



22 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

St. Albans is the next place of importance we passed, and it 
claims the distinction of being more ancient than London. 
Under Roman rule it was called Verulam, but during a perse- 
cution of the Christians under Diocletian, Albanus was martyred 
here, and the city took his name. A church was founded to 
his memory on the spot where he died, but the magnificent 
Norman Cathedral now occupies the site. 

After leaving St. Albans, everything indicates the rapid 
approach to the metropolis, and soon " London " was shouted, 
as the train rolled into St. Pancras Station, and, rising Saul-like 
above the crowd, was the tall form of W. T. Moore, waiting 
to give us a hearty "Buckeye" welcome to the English 
metropolis. 



IN AND AROUND LONDON. 

We were driven to the home of Bro. W. T. Moore, and 
welcomed in true American style. Monday niglit we at- 
tended his training class for ladies, the working of which we 
greatly admired. It is a sort of normal where the Bible is sys- 
tematically studied with a view to fit them for Christian work, 
I think many of our American preachers may obtain a hint from 
this. On Wednesday we attended his regular church prayer- 
meeting ; there were present at least one hundred and fifty 
persons. Bro. Moore has four regular meetings each week for 
prayer and Scripture study, besides his Sunday services. On 
Lord's day morning the writer preached, and at night Bro. 
Errett. The night sermon was one of Bro. Errett's happiest, 
and presented the gospel as simply and as fully as I ever heard 
it. I also took occasion to present the cardinal points of our 
plea. I did this purposely, because I had heard some grum- 
bling in America about Bro. Moore's not preaching the old- 
fashioned gospel. I am sure this is untrue, for I never saw 
people receive the truth more heartily than they. If any of 
our preachers are laboring under the impression that Bro. 
Moore has a sinecure, a visit to London and this hard-worked 
man will dissipate all of it. His congregation raised last year 
for all purposes between ^3,500 and ^^4,000. It is now out of 
debt, and at perfect peace. In addition to his church work, 
he is editor-in-chief of the CJiristian CommonwealtJi, one of the 
ablest and most influential religious journals in Great Britain. 
It has taken strong hold upon the independent masses, from 
the member of Parliament to the laboring man, and is destined 
to wield a great influence, in its way, for Christian union upon 
Bible principles. We tried to see as much of London as pos- 
sible in one week, and now feel that we have hardly creased 
the great orb. When we realize that there are as many people 



24 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

in London as can be found in the city and State of New York, 
with a half dozen smaller States thrown in, we can form some 
estimate of its size. There is no one spot in London from 
which one can obtain anything like a panorama of this won- 
derful place. Its streets, if strung out in line, would reach from 
New York to San Francisco. It contains more people than 
Switzerland, Denmark and Greece; more Scotchmen than Ed- 
inboro ; more Irishmen than Dubhn ; more Welsh than 
Cardiff; more Jews than Palestine ; more Roman Catholics 
than Rome ; and yet so many Englishmen that there is not an 
unusual number of any of the above elements. It records a 
birth every five and a death every seven minutes. It is more 
dangerous to walk the streets of London than to travel by 
railway or ocean steamer. Last year one hundred and thirty 
people were killed and twenty-six hundred wounded. It is 
the great maw of England, consuming daily one thousand 
oxen, four thousand sheep, and twenty thousand chickens, to 
say nothing of pork, veal and fish. 

It contains half as many servants as Chicago has popula- 
tion, and yet has only one servant for every twelve of its 
population. Previous to our arrival Bro. Moore had written to 
the speaker of the House of Commons and secured tickets of ad- 
mission to the Speaker's Gallery for us. The House of Parlia- 
ment is a very pretty and imposing building, especially approach- 
ing it from Westminster Bridge, but it does not begin to compare 
in beauty with our national building. It has more of the ap- 
pearance of an exposition building than a great State building. 
We approached by way of the Saint Stephen''s HalL Just 
before entering this, we saw on our left a rather insignificant 
looking chapel, which our guide informed us was Westminster 
Hall. It is one of the most historic buildings in London. 
Here the long line of kings were crowned, from the Conqueror 
to George IV. Here many famous nobles were tried and exe- 
cuted. At the base of the wooden arches of the ceiling are 
iron hooks. To one of these an officer pointed and informed 
us that Oliver Cromwell's head hung upon it for thirty years. 
Leaving this old chamber we enter St. Stephen's Hall. , This 
long hall leads to the central octagonal chamber, and is the 






11 







HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, LONDON. 



Page 25. 



IN AND AROUND LONDON. 2*] 

finest room in the building. The floor is Venetian mosaic of 
the finest quahty. The niches are filled with statues of dead 
royalty, from the days of William the Conqueror. 

The House Of Peers, which answers to our Senate cham- 
ber, is a magnificent Gothic hall, ninety feet long and forty-five 
feet wide. The benches are upholstered in red leather, and 
contain over four hundred sittings. The stained glass of the 
windows contains portraits of English royalty since the time of 
the Norman conquest. The walls are adorned with statues of 
the barons who obtained the Magna Charta from King John. 

The Hall of Commons is a plain room, about forty feet wide 
and seventy feet long. The members of the administration 
party sit on the right and the opposition on the left of the 
speaker. The Irish members sit at the end farthest from the 
speaker. Poor Ireland ! she has been sitting at the farther end, 
ever since she has been under the control of England. 

Englishmen all have a drawl in their public speech, and 
seem to delight in it. It is amusing to hear the cockneys and ^ 
dudes upon the street attempt to imitate this hesitating man- 
ner of their orators. 

The only debate of the evening that took on the appearance 
of interest was upon the withdrawal of the British troops from 
Egypt. Even this could be easily eclipsed by a district con- 
vention oi our preachers discussing "Our Relations to the 
Sects," or some kindred topic. I soon had enough of it; and 
wandered out into the Central Hall to wait till Bro. Errett was 
gratified. I didn't have more than twenty minutes to wait. 

We also went to hear Spurgeon. , That great preacher is 
more familiar to Americans than any other living Englishman. 
He has been so frequently described that I will add but a word. 
I think the secret of his success lies in keeping doimi to the ^ 
level of his audience. His congregation is pre-eminently one of 
the common people. So far as I can judge, it will not com- 
pare favorably in intelligence with an average congregation of 
our Western States. The sermon itself was a very plain dis- 
cussion of "The Pharisee and the Publican." We have 
preachers by the hundred that could surpass the effort as an 
effort. 



28 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

The fact, however, remains that for nearly thirty years he 
has drawn and held the largest audience in the . world. This 
should teach our smart preachers that there is more power in 
the simphcity which is in Christ, than in the subtilty of men. 
His recent attem.pt, however, to force a creed of human mak- 
ing upon the people of his denomination demonstrates that he 
is either getting puffed up by his marvelous success, and is dis- 
posed to become the Baptist pope, or that he has become 
childish and is no longer the man he was in his prime. We 
regret to say that the indications thus far point to the former 
as the solution of his course. 

Sunday at 3 p. m., I went to hear Archdeacon Farrar, at 
Westminster Abbey. The huge building was crowded to its 
utmost seating and standing capacity. While I was too far 
from the speaker to hear all he said, what I did hear gave me a 
a very favorable opinion of him. My opinion concerning the 
Church of England has undergone considerable change since I 
have seen it "at home." Hitherto I had judged it by its 
" poor relation " in America, which is certainly a misjudgment. 
The Dissenters, by their criticisms, have compelled it to return 
to a dignified position, while they have not followed their own 
criticism. 

The result is apparent in the strong hold which "the 
church " has taken upon the intelligent masses of this coun- 
try. In my judgment, unless there is great improvement in 
the Dissenting churches, disestablishment is in the far distant 
future. Criticism nearly always works well toward them who 
are exercised thereby, but rarely helps the critic. 

Westminster stands upon holy ground. Long before 
Christianity was introduced into England, our Druid ancestors 
cut the hemlocks and waved them in their mystic ceremonies 
upon this spot. After the introduction of Christianity, a 
church was erected to St. Peter by the Saxon king, Sebert, 
which was subsequently destroyed by the Danes. It was 
rebuilt by Edward the Confessor, since which time its improve- 
ments and additions have marked the advance of English re- 
ligious life. Its walls have echoed to the solemn christening 
ceremonies, the glad peal of the wedding march, and the sad 



IN AND AROUND LONDON. 2g 

wail of the funeral rites of England's royalty, nobility and 
worth. It stands, a solemn witness to their birth, baptism, 
bridal and burial occasions. 

" That antique pile behold, 

Where royal heads receive the sacred gold ; 

It gives them crowns, and does their ashes keep ; 

There made like gods, like mortals there they sleep, 

Making the circle of their reign complete — 

These suns of empire, where they rise they set. 

" Think how many royal bones 
Sleep within these heaps of stones! 
Here they lie — had realms and lands. 
Who now want strength to lift their hands. 
Where, from their pulpit, sealed with dust, 
They preach, ' In greatness is no trust.' " 

As I stood within the walls of the massive building, and 
saw on every hand the statues and memorials of England's 
greatness, and listened to the grand, rich choir, whose words 
echoed and reverberated through the groined arches and mas- 
sive aisles and chapels, it seemed to me that I was in spirit 
with Curtis Guild when he wrote — 

"In whichever direction the footsteps may incline, one is 
brought before the last mementoes of the choicest dust of 
England. Here they lie — sovereigns, poets, warriors, divines, 
authors, heroes and philosophers; wise and pure-minded men, 
vulgar and sensual tyrants ; those who, in the fulness of years, 
have calmly passed away, ' rich in that hope that triumphs 
over pain,' and those whom the dagger of the assassin, the axe 
of the executioner, and the bullet of the battle-field cut down 
in their prime. Sovereign, priest, soldier and citizen slumber 
side by side, laid low by the great leveler, Death." 

The greatest width of the Abbey is something over two 
hundred feet, while the length is over four hundred. It 
contains nine chapels, with a whole forest of cloisters. 

One of the finest of the chapels is that of Henry VII. and 
his consort, Elizabeth — the last of the House of York to wear 
the crown of England. It is shown in the illustration, standing 



30 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 




CHAPEL AND MAUSOLEUM OF HENRY VII., WESTMINSTER. 



in the main body of the chapel in a casting of brass, profusely 
ornamented, and decorated with statues of St. Edward, St. 
Bartholomew, St. George and St. James, The royal pair, in 
effigy, are recumbent upon a tomb of black marble, at the head 



IN AND AROUND LONDON. 3 1 

of which is a red dragon, the ensign of Cadwallader, the last 
of the Briton kings, from whom Henry descended. At the 
foot of the tomb is an angel. There is a profusion of inter- 
twined roses, representing the union of the houses of York 
and Lancaster. In this chapel also reposes the body of the 
weak, cruel, fanatical, vindictive and passionate James the 
First. He was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots, by 
Lord Darnley, and was born in Edinburgh Castle, and is 
known in history as James VI. of Scotland. Under his reign 
the crowns of Scotland and England were united. It was a 
long and peaceful one, and was the age of Ben Jonson, 
Shakespeare, Raleigh and Bacon. 

It witnessed the colonization of Virginia, and the transla- 
tion of the English Bible, which is commonly known as the 
King James Translation. In this chapel, also, Oliver Cromwell, 
four of his family and six of his officers were originally buried, 
but they were removed after the Restoration. Edward 
VI. , under whose reign the Book of Common Prayer was 
composed, the Duke of Argyle and Elizabeth Claypole, sec- 
ond daughter of Oliver Cromwell, are also interred in this 
chapel. ' 

The oldest of the chapels is that of Edward the Confessor, 
the last of the Saxon kings, if we except Harold, and the most 
superstitious. It is occupied by monuments to several other 
monarchs, as well. In the center is the shrine of the Con 
fessor. On his right is a bronze effigy of Henry III., sur- 
mounting a pedestal of porphyry and mosaic. On the left is 
the Duke of Gloucester, murdered at Calais. In the rear are 
Queen Eleanor, who sucked the poison from her husband with 
her lips, and Philippa, wife of Edward III., and the queenly 
mother of fourteen children. In this chapel is the old corona- 
tion chair of the Scottish kings, under the seat of which is the 
renowned "stone of Scone," which the Scotch believe to be 
the original stone which Jacob used at Bethel for a pillar. The 
Scotch always have been a believing nation. When the power 
of Scotch royalty was completely broken, this stone was 
removed to London, and every English monarch since has 
occupied that chair when coronated. They have not all, like 



32 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

Jacob, however, seen the ladder that led up to heavenly rest 
and peace, with its angel ministrants thereon.. The most in- 
teresting portion of the Abbey, to me, was the Poets' Corner. 
In walking through that corner and seeing the names of great- 
ness, there was quite a sprinkling of humor with their epitaphs. 
Here is Matthew Prior's, written by himself: 

" Nobles and heralds, by your leave, 

Here lies what once was Matthew Prior, 
The son of Adam and of Eve ; — 

Can Bourbon or Nassau claim higher?" 

This is also the irreverent inscription made by John Gay, 
the poet : 

" Life is a jest, and all things show it; 
I thought so once, but now I know it." 

Many others v/ere found quaint, humorous and grotesque, 
but none quite so grotesque as that reared by loving but eco- 
nomical parents down in the old Virginia State : 

" Here lies our little babe, 

It neither cries nor hollers ; 

■ It lived just two and twenty days. 

And cost va forty dollars.'''' 

America is ahead yet ! 

One that impressed me as much as any other was a plain 
black marble slab bearing the following inscription : " Brought 
by faithful hands over land and sea. here rests David Living- 
stone, Missionary, Traveler, Philanthropist." There were also 
some Latin verses from Lucan, representing Julius Caesar's de- 
sire to solve the problem of the source of the Nile : "So great 
is my love of truth that there is nothing I would rather know 
than the causes of the river that have lain hid through so 
many ages." 

We can not linger longer at Westminster, but where shall 
we go ? To Buckingham, Hyde Park, Zoological Garden, Old 
London Bridge, Blackfriars, Tower, Smithfield, Bank of Eng- 
land, British Museum, Windsor Castle, Greenwich Hospital, 
Thames Embankment, or St. Paul's? So many places and so 



IN AND AROUND LONDON. 



33 



short a time, but as we have seen Westminster, we will now 
go to St. Paul's. What was formerly St. Paul's churchyard 




ST. Paul's cathedral. — Built by Christopher Wren. 

is now built up solidly with grand stores and shops. Not a 
sign of a churchyard, except a few marble statues which have 
taken the place of the old-time tombstones. There is a remark- 
ably fine statue of Queen Anne in front of the western entrance 
to the cathedral. Standing in front of this one warm day, I 
had removed my hat to let my head cool. I heard a cabman 
remark to his fellows : " Look hat that Hamerican takin' hoff 
'is 'at to Queen Hanne." They evidently thought to have a 
little fun, and one of them stepped up and said: "Stranger, 
do you know you 'ave your 'at hoff to one of our Queens ?" 
Immediately putting on my hat, I replied : "I beg your par- 
don, sir, but I thought it must be Martha Washington." He 
retired amid the laughter of his associates. 

St. Paul's is next to Westminster in religious association, 
and larger in size — in fact, with the exception of St. Peter's, in 
Rome, it is the largest church in the world. It was built by 



34 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

Sir Christopher Wren, and is the monument to his work of 
thirty-five years. He is buried in the crypt ,of the cathedral, 
and on the slab that marks the spot, the stranger is told, " If 
ye seek his monument, look around you." 

It, though a temple ot peace, is filled with statues of 
England's zvarriors. There are only a few exceptions to this, 
such as Elliott, first missionary bishop of India, and John 
Howard, the philanthropist. It made me feel queer to read 
the eulogies pronounced upon such ■ men as Cornwallis, Howe 
and Packenham. The most interesting thing in the crypt is 
the coffin of Wellington. Here also is his funeral car of solid 
iron, cast from the cannons of his victories. The bells of 
this cathedral never toll except for the death of royalty. The 
only exception to this rule was in the death of President 
Garfield. 



LONDON TO PARIS. 

Monday evening we bade adieu to our friends in London, 
and started for Paris. We took the route via New Haven and 
Dieppe, in preference to the more direct way through Dover 
and Calais, for two reasons, viz : First, because it was an all- 
night ride ; and second, because it was cheap — principally, how- 
ever, for the latter reason. 

There is very little of interest on the railway line between 
London and New Haven. On our right a few miles, was 
Brighton, one of the fashionable watering-places of England, 
and formerly the home of Frederick W. Robertson, one of the 
grandest preachers that the Church of England ever produced; 
and about as far to the left was the battle-field of Hastings, 
where the decisive battle between the Saxons, under Harold, and 
their Norman conquerors, under William, was fought. About 
eleven p. m. , we took the steamer Victoria for Dieppe, and about 
ten minutes later we wished most heartily we had n't. Oh, 
that channel ! I had read of it, heard of it, and thought of it. 
But the half has never been told ! This time it was not simply 
derangement of the stomach, but derangement all along the 
line ! I succumbed before we had made a mile out of port, 
and staid succumbed clear across. In fact, I am still succumbed, 
when I think of it. It makes my liver mad to hear it men- 
tioned ! I have a return ticket via same route, but I am going 
back some other way. I do n't know of any better way, but 
I do n't care for that ! I am going to try it, anyway. I feel 
about the channel a good deal like old Sister Spears, of Paris, 
Ky., about the Atlantic Ocean. When she and her husband 
had crossed once in safety, she suggested to her husband the 
propriety of "buying a horse and buggy and driving round," 
going back. 

But all things in this world have an end, and along with 

3S 



36 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



these a channel passage. Dieppe means tJie deep, and is so 
named for its deep roadstead. It was formerly the principal 
seaport of France, and is now the favorite watering-place. It is 
defended by a wall and a castle built upon a high cliff. It is the 
birthplace of Admiral Duquesne, who gave name to the Amer- 
ican fort at what is now Pittsburg. It is noted for its manufac- 
ture of watches, linen paper, and its ivory carving. It is 
said to be noted for its pretty Avomen ; but if those we saw 
were to be taken as specimens, it can hardly be beaten for 
ugly ones. 

We passed our first foreign custom house here, and did so 
with trembling ; but before our return, we could pa^:s a cus- 




FEUDAL CASTLE AT ROUEN. 



toms examination as easily and with as little concern as we 
could eat a breakfast. Speaking of breakfast reminds me that 



LONDON TO PARIS. 37 

we took our first foreign breakfast at Dieppe. It consisted of 
" Pain et beurro, et cafe au lait, et pommes de terre " — which, 
by interpretation, is bread and butter and coffee and potatoes. 
The fare was simple, but very clean, and the waiters exceed- 
ingly polite. After breakfast we took train for Paris, and in 
less than an hour's running, up the beautiful and fertile valley 
of the Scie, which we crossed some twenty-two times, we 
reached the old-time Norman capital of Rouen. Rouen was 
the Rotomagus of the Romans. It is now a very flourishing 
manufacturing city of over one hundred thousand inhabitants, 
and is to France what Manchester is to England. It was the 
home of William the Conqueror, who, by the way, was the 
son of a tanner's daughter, and said to be so illiterate that he 
could not write his name. His autograph mark is still pre- 
served here, in the museum. And yet there is not an aristo- 
cratic family in all England that does not feel a thrill of superi- 
ority if its lineage can be traced back to his time, if not to Jiim 
— the illegitimate child of Robert the Magnificent. 

Rouen is als_o the place where Joan of Arc, the brave 
French girl that came forth in the hour of France's need, and 
by her earnestness not only won the heart of the king till his 
permission was given her to attempt to raise the siege of Or- 
leans, but, going directly to the despondent army, and cloth- 
ing herself in armor, so animated the soldiers that she made 
them feel that she was sent of God to lead them to victory. 
Equally depressing was her infiuence upon the English 
soldiers, who feared her presence in the siege as the Trojans 
feared the presence of Athene's apparition. Soon the siege of 
Orleans was abandoned, and in honor and triumph she led the 
French Charles VII. from Chinon to Rheims ; and in the grand 
cathedral he was crowned, with the greatest of enthusiasm. 
She felt now that her life-work was accomplished, and fain 
would have retired to private lif*?. But the army would not 
permit it. Much against her own will, she was still used in an 
expedition against Paris, then under the control of the Eng- 
lish. She was wounded by an arrow, and her presence no 
no longer inspiring the soldiery, the attack was a failure. 
About one year from the time she led the French victorious at 



38 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



Orleans, she was captured by the English, and taken to 
Rouen ; was accused of being inspired by the devil and prac- 
ticing the black art. After a long trial she was condemned, 
and burnt at the stake. Not satisfied with burning, her 
enemies gathered up her ashes, and scattered them into the 
river. It is a strange fact that all her judges met violent and 
sudden deaths. She was burned in an open place, that has 
since been named for her — the place de la piicelle. A quarter 
of a century later she was declared innocent of the crimes she 
expiated with her life, and a cross was erected to mark the 
spot where she suffered. It is now decorated with an insignifi- 
cant figure over a fountain ; but a beautiful bronze equestrian 
statue stands to her memory in Paris. 




STATUE OF JOAN OF AKC. I'ARIS. 



Leaving Rouen the train hurries us onward about fifty 
miles, passing on the way several fine old feudal castles of the 



LONDON TO PARIS, 39 

Norman period, each with its history of love and hate, jeal- 
ousy and faithfulness, freedom and shackles, when we arrived 
at Mantes, the place where William the Conqueror met his 
death. After the subjugation of England it was his desire to 
enlarge his Norman possessions, and, in order to do so at 
once, he sought a quarrel with King Philip of France for tha.': 
purpose. He marched upon Mantes, besieged, took, and 
burned it. While the city was enveloped in fire and smoke, 
William, leading the army, plunged into the ruins. His horse's 
feet being burned by the still hot ashes of the ruined city, the 
wounded creature reared and threw his rider, producing a rup- 
ture from which he shortly after died at Rouen. 

We arrived at Paris about one p. m., and after passing the 
customs ofificer at the station, took a cab — or, as we are in 
France, it is proper to say voiture — and told the driver, in as 
good French as we could command, to drive us to the Hotel 
Binda. 

We had been advised by friends to stop there, because the 
proprietor had served for years at Delmonico's New York 
establishment as head steward, and it was quite well patronized 
by Americans. It is a very neat and attractive place, just 
between the Rue St. Honore and Avenue del Opera, and only 
a few steps from the Louvre. The hotels have no large public 
office flanked with public parlors and lobbies, as do our Ameri- 
can hotels. You generally enter them through a low archway 
somewhat similar to the usual approaches to an American the- 
ater. At the farther end a door leads into a marble-paved court 
in which a fountain is generally playing. Opening into this 
court is a "bureau " where you can rent rooms, and for which 
you should always make stipulated terms. We got a large 
double room, including towels, soap, two candles per week and 
attendance, for ten francs per day. 

The newly arrived traveler in Paris is always advised by 
guides to take a drive over the city, preliminary to regular 
sight- seeing. We will take our preliminary drive in the form of 
a short history of the city. 

The first historic mention of the place is to be found in 
Caesar's commentaries, in which it is referred to as Lutitia, the 



40 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



English of which is watertown or place in the zvater, doubtless 
so called because it was originally situated upon the isle — La 
Cite — in the Seine, and connected with the mainland on either 
side by a bridge. It was the fortress and capital city of a tribe 
of the Gauls called the Parish, "who, when pressed by their 
enemies, could take refuge upon the island and resist all 
ordinary attacks. From that tribe it obtained its present name. 
The first historic event in the city was the introduction of 
Christianity by one Denis, or Dyonisius, afterwards canonized 
and known as St. Denis. He was sent from Rome a. d. 250 
to preach the gospel to the. Gauls. He preached and suffered 
at Aries and many other places, but finally arrived at Paris, 
where he made many disciples. In the year 272 a. d. he 
suffered martyrdom, in company with a priest named Rusticus 
and a deacon named Elutherius. Gregory of Tours states 
that their bodies were thrown into the Seine, from whence a 
pious woman rescued them and had them buried near the place 
of martyrdom. The Abbey of St. Denis still exists near Paris, 
in which they are supposed to sleep. Tradition has made 

St. Denis identical with Dyonisius 
the Arceopagite, who sided with Paul 
at the close of his Mars' Hill 
speech, but this is manifestly absurd, 
as it would require him to be at least 
two hundred and fifty years old. 

It was at Paris, a. d. 361, that 
Julian the Apostate was proclaimed 
emperor, and where he resided 
for a time as governor of the 
Gauls. A. D. 496 Clovis succeeded 
in expelling the Romans from Gaul 
and became the emperor of the 
Franks. At this time he was a 
heathen, but was married to a Chris- 
tian wife, Clotilda, who greatly de- 
sired his conversion. In the great 
battle with the Alemanni, becoming hard pressed, he called 
upon the God of his wife, and promised to become a 




JULIAN. 



LONDON TO PARIS. 43 

Christian if he should win the victory. Having routed the 
enemy, he kept his word — on the following Christmas was 
baptized, in company with thousands of his soldiers, at 
Rheims. He built a church to Peter and Paul, but afterward 
dedicated it to St. Genevieve, who died during his reign. 

A. D. 752 Pepin founded the second or Carlovingian dy- 
nasty. He was succeeded by his son Charlemagne a. d. 768, 
the Alexander of mediaeval times. He defended the church 
upon all occasions, not only subduing his enemies with carnal 
weapons, but compelling chem to be baptized by means of 
the same power. He visited Rome a. d. 800, and while 
kneeliiig upon the steps of St. Peter's Church was crowned by 
Pope Leo HI. as Emperor of the West, and given the title of 
Charles I. Csesar Augustus. The crown used upon the occa- 
sion was what is known in history as the Iron Crown of Lom- 
bardy. The circlet is of gold and set in jewels. The inner 
circlet is an iron band, made of one of the nails from the cross 
of Christ (?). Tradition says it was given to Constantine by 
his mother Helena, who discovered the true cross at Jerusa- 
lem. It was afterwards used to crown all the Emperors who 
were kings of Lombardy. When at Milan Napoleon placed 
it upon his head and said: " God has given it to me ; woe to 
him who shall touch it." It is preserved with great care at 
Monza, near Milan, as the most noted crown of the world. 

A. D 987 Hugh Capet founded the third or Capetian dy- 
nasty. He succeeded the heirless Louis V., with whose death 
the blood of Charlemagne ceased to assert itself as a ruling 
power. 

A. D. 1339 the House of Valois assumed control, in the 
person of Philip VI., and continued to rule for 250 years. 

The House of Bourbon continued two centuries, to be 
overthrown in the "Revolution" of 1789 a. d., with the be- 
heading of Louis XVI., the dethronement of God, and the 
enthronement and worship of Reason. The rising sun of 
Napoleon's greatness made him Emperor in 1805 a. d., which 
position he held ten years. Upon the restoration of Louis 
XVIII, to the throne, a. d. 18 14, Napoleon was banished to 
Elba, but returned in triumph the following year, and again 



44 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

began the brilliant career of conquest which ended in his 
defeat, by the Duke of Wellington, at Waterloo, and his ban- 
ishment to the island of St. Helena, where he died, May 5, 
1 82 1 A. D. Since the time of Napoleon Paris has presented a 
stormy scene, with but little restfulness. The Republic of 1848 
was followed by the second Empire, of 1852 a. d , when Na- 
poleon III. ascended the throne. The downfall of that monarch 
was followed by the Republic of 1870, which was succeeded 
the following year by the communistic insurrection. In 1879 
A. D., Jules Grevy became President of the Republic, and held 
the position till December, 1887, when he was compelled to 
resign, and his place was filled by Sadi-Carnot, who still 
occupies it. 



PARIS THE BEAUTIFUL. 

To see Paris properly, one should classify the objects he 
desires to view, and visit them accordingly. The most promi- 
nent sights are the places or squares, generally ornamented 
with monuments, columns or obelisks. Then come the parks 
and fountains, and lastly public buildings, museums and 
churches. The Place du Trone is in the eastern part of the 
city, and is so called because Louis XIV. here erected a throne 
upon which to receive the homage of the people, because of 
the Peace of the Pyrenees. Two large fluted columns, repre- 
senting Commerce and Industry, stand on either side of the 
entrance, surmounted by statues of St. Louis and Philippe Au- 
guste. From this point it is said to be five miles to the Arch 
of Triumph, in the western portion of the city. 

Proceeding towards the west, we come upon the Place de la 
Bastille. Upon this spot a prison was erected for political prison- 
ers, by Charles V. and Charles VI. Here noblemen and authors, 
who had not been legally tried, were incarcerated at the pleas- 
ure of the king. Among the eminent victims of this place 
may be recorded the names of Voltaire, Bassompierre, and the 
famous Man of the Iron Mask. The Bastile came to symbol- 
ize oppression to the French mind, and the first violent symp. 
tom of the Revolution of 1789 was the storming of it, in which 
the commandant, De Launay, was killed, together with the 
venerable Archbishop of Paris, who was shot while trying to 
calm the m.ob. The building was demolished, and over the 
spot where it stood now rises the Column of July. It was 
built in 1840, and is a beautiful column one hundred and fifty- 
four feet high, surmounted by the Genius of Liberty, holding 
in one hand the torch of enlightenment, and in the other the 
broken chains of slavery. A very beautiful conception, and 
entirely in harmony with the sentiments of the French people. 



46 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

We passed, also, the Tower of St. Jacques, which is noth- 
ing more than the steeple of the old church left standing. It 
interested us to know that from the summit of this tower Pas- 




STORMING THE BASTILE. 

cal made his first experiments in regard to atmospheric pressure. 
The Column Vendome rises in the Place Vendome. It is an 
imitation of Trajan's Column at Rome, and was erected by 
Napoleon Bonaparte to commemorate his victory over the 
Russians and Austrians, in 1805. The bronze covering is made 
of twelve hundred pieces of Austrian and Russian cannon. It 
was torn down by the Communists in 1871, but the fragments 
have been gathered and recast. Napoleon stands upon the 
top, representing Julius Caesar. 

A short distance west of the Place Vendome is the Place 
de la Concorde. Over this place the great ocean of French 
life has rolled in surgeful waves of blood and death, and doubt- 
less there is no other such historic spot in France. In 1770 
the nuptials of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette were here 
celebrated, at which time a panic occurred by the discharge of 



PARIS THE BEAUTIFUL. 



47 



fireworks, which caused the carriages to be driven over the 
multitude, kilHng twelve hundred people and wounding two 
thousand. Here occurred the collision, which led to the de- 
struction of the Bastile. Here stood the guillotine, upon 
which perished in two years 
twenty-eight hundred people, 
an average of nearly four per 
day. Here were beheaded 
Louis and Marie, the Duke of 
Orleans and Gen. Beauharnais, 
Josephine's first husband, 
Robespierre and Charlotte 
Corday. A magnificent foun- 
tain throws up its crystal tides, 
where the scaffold of Louis 
XVL stood, and where the 
crimson tides of French no- 
bility played in those days, 
but, as Chateaubriand justly 
remarked, all the water in the 
world can not efface from hu- 
man history the horrible deeds committed there. The axe and 
block are gone. No grim axeman is to be seen waiting for his 
victims. In their places stand a crowd of smihng French men 
and women, nurses rolling sweet little infants along in baby 
carriages, and merry boys playing with the fishes in the foun- 
tains, while handsome equipages roll by on every side, and it 
is difficult to conceive that this was ever anything but a place 
of joy and beauty. May this prove a forerunner of what is 
yet to come to our sin-cursed earth, so much disturbed by 
strife and bloodshed. 

Near the fountain stands the Egyptian obelisk that was 
erected by Rameses 11. in front of the temple of Thebes, and 
presented to France by Mohammed AH. The French people 
decided to mark this spot with nothing that would recall any 
French History, and very wisely selected the Egyptian ruler's 
gift as a monument. 

The three master spirits in the great revolution that found 




THE GUILLOTINE. 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



its blood-center in the Place de la Concorde, were Danton, 
Robespierre and Marat. Danton was a lawyer of some ability. 
Robespierre was of noble stock, and also a lawyer ; while 
Marat was a medical student and a fanatical demagogue. He 




e./^uwyAT. 



JEAN PAUL MARAT. 



was wild in his harangues and sensitive to praise. On one 
occasion he attempted to blow out his brains, because of the 
indifference with which the audience received his clamor. 
These three men ruled anarchical France with more than im- 
perial power for a short period, but it could not last when 
reason came to the rescue of the nation. 

Robespierre perished by the guillotine, as did also Danton. 
Marat doubtless would have met with a similar fate, had he not 
been assassinated, in his bath, by a young French girl, Charlotte 
Corday, all three of them, however, in their violent deaths. 



PARIS THE BEAUTIFUL. 



49 



justifying the language of the Christ, " He that taketh the 
sword shall perish by the sword." The real cause of the 
French Revolution lay in the extravagance with which the 
Bourbon kings wasted the revenues of France by building 
palaces and parks for themselves and their favorites. The 
Palace of Versailles is one of which Voltaire remarked, " It is 





THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES. 



a gulf of expenses in which the treasures of France are sunk." 
It is indebted to Louis XIV. for what it is. Tiring of St. Ger- 
mains, he determined to erect a structure that should be the 
marvel of the world. He leveled a space having a circuit of 
sixty miles, and which was filled with hills and valleys. He 
brought water from great distances, employing in the work 
36,000 men and 6,000 horses. The water display is very fine, 
the largest fountain alone costing ;^300,ooo, and each time it 
plays involving an expense of ^2,000. To attempt to describe 
Versailles, with its great acres of fine paintings, its groves of 
statuary, and the treasures of nearly a century and a half, is 
impossible in the limits of this work. The visitor sees the 
study of Napoleon Bonaparte, with its identical furniture, the 
bed-room of the Empress Josephine, and the one allotted to 
Queen Victoria on the occasion of her visit to Paris. 



go AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

In the Hall of the Crusades we have a complete panorama 
of the result of that wonderful uprising of European chivalry. 
One large picture represents the "Taking of Constantinople,"" 
another "The Capture of Antioch," another "The Siege of 
Acre," "The Battle of Ascalon," "Taking of Jerusalem," 
while still another represents the " March of the Crusaders 
around Jerusalem." Then come The Sieges of Rhodes and 
Malta. The Hall of Battles is a notable feature of the palace. 
It is four hundred feet long, forty feet wide and as many high. 
It contains, among others, the battles of Marengo, Wagram, 
Friedland, Rivoli, Austerlitz, Jena, The Passage of the Alps. 
This almost makes one feel that he is in the presence of Napo- 
leon. Nearly all his great battles are portrayed except Water- 
loo. Then there are whole galleries of distinguished French- 
men: one, of the Kings of France, containing seventy por- 
traits ; another, of the Bonaparte family ; another, of the 
Admirals of France — -fourteen rooms full of them. The place 
has a private Opera House, as large as any ordinary building of 
that kind ; also, a grand chapel to Him before whom kings are 
dust. The central chapel is surrounded by seven smaller ones, 
all profusely enriched. 

But speaking of churches brings us back again to Paris and 
its churches. Voltaire once remarked when the various 
churches of Paris were being mentioned, all, or nearly so, 
dedicated to the saints, that it was time somebody in Paris was 
building a church to God. Paris has hundreds of churches, 
but the little flock under Jules de Launay was the only one I 
found erected simply to God and wearing only the name of 
His Christ. First among the churches of Paris may be men- 
tioned the historic Cathedral of Notre Dame. The exterior of 
it is well rendered by the picture. Its two huge towers rise to 
the height of two hundred feet. Its great Catherine wheel in 
the front being nearly forty feet in diameter and filled with the 
most elegant colored glass. The interior is very impressive, 
with its great arches, its tall columns and fine altars. One of 
the finest views of Paris may be obtained from the towers. In 
those towers are the great bells that are so familiar to those 
who have read Victor Hugo's novel "The Hunchback of 




THE CATHEDRAL OF NOTRE DAME, PARIS. Page 51. 



PARIS THE BEAUTIFUL, 53 

Notre Dame." The prettiest church in Paris is Sainte 
Chapelle, erected in 1245 a. d. for the reception of the rehcs 
purchased from Jean de Brienne, King of Jerusalem, for 
3,000,000 francs. Among them were fragments of the true 
cross nail from same, and crown of thorns. These have all 
been removed to Notre Dame. In 1742 a. d. a human heart 
was found under the altar, supposed to be that of St. Louis. 
We have not space to write of St. Sulpice, St. Eustache, 
St. Augustine, St. Roche, etc. 

The Madeleine is the finest building in Paris, and next to 
the Parthenon the finest I saw in Europe. It was begun by 
Louis XV., but the Revolution stopped the work upon it. 
Napoleon turned it into a Temple of Glory. It stands upon a 
platform three hundred and twenty-eight feet long by one hun- 
dred and thirty-eight feet wide, and is surrounded by fifty-two 
Corinthian columns, forty-nine feet high and six feet in diame 
ter. The roof is copper and iron, the doors bronze and iron, 
and next to St. Peter's at Rome in size. Over the front pillars 
is a relief representing Christ as the Judge of the World ; the 
central figure of which is seventeen feet high, and yet from 
the street below it does not look larger than life size. 

Our account of Paris should now be at an end, and we have 
not said one word about the Louvre, the greatest of all Parisian 
attractions. I feel so utterly overwhelmed in attempting to 
portray it that I shall simply quote the sentiments of a distin- 
guished American traveler: 

"We have been in and through the Louvre, not in one 
visit, but again and again, over acres of flooring, past miles of 
pictures — a plethora of luxurious art, days of wonder, and 
hours of sight-seeing. How many originals we have gazed 
upon that we have seen copies of in every style ! how many 
pictures of great artists that we have read of, and how many 
curious and wonderful historical relics and antiquities ! What 
an opportunity for the student and artist ! What a source of 
amusement and entertainment, what a privilege, in these old 
countries, is the free admission to those costly and well stocked 
galleries of art — here, where we may see hundreds of cele- 
brated pictures and statues, any two of which would ' pay 



54 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

handsomely ' placed on exhibition in one of our great Ameri- 
can cities; here, where there are seven miles of pictures, and 
their catalogue makes a thick book of over seven hundred 
pages ; here, where, if you were to start and walk constantly, 
without stopping an instant to rest, it would require three 
hours to pass through the different apartments ; here, where 
perhaps the American tourist or newspaper correspondent 
sharpens his pencil and takes a fresh note-book, with the feel- 
ing that it is a prolific field, but is overwhelmed with an ocean 
of art, and consoles himself with the thought that the Louvre 
has been so often described, written about, and commented on, 
that the subject is worn threadbare, and that the public has 
had enough rhapsodies and descriptions of it." 

I believe my readers will now excuse me if I do not drag 
them through this great continent of culture. The tomb of 
Napoleon is at the Church of the Invalides. . His body lies in 
a sarcophagus of Finland granite, weighing one hundred and 
thirty-five thousand pounds, and costing thirty thousand dol- 
lars, which surmounts another block six feet wide and twelve 
feet long, the whole being about fifteen feet high. It is in a 
circular crypt, the floor of which is a handsome crown worked 
in variously colored marble. In the chapel are the sword of 
Austerlitz, flags captured by the French, and such like Na- 
poleonic mementoes. I saw there the flag of every nation of 
the civilized world, with just one exception, and that one no 
American needs be told. Over the entrance to the crypt are 
the words of his will, "I desire that my ashes may repose 
upon the banks of the Seine, among the French people whom 
I loved so well." At the entrance are the sarcophagi of his 
two faithful friends, Duroc and Bertrand, the last of whom gave 
expression to that principle of gratitude, " I shared with him 
in his glory, and I will not desert him in his downfall." Over 
the tomb, the dome of the building rises to the height of one 
hundred and sixty feet. It is contrary to the regulations of 
the place for persons to speak louder than a whisper in the 
building. The great Arch of Triumph, begun by Napoleon in 
1806, and since completed at a cost of over two millions of 
dollars, is one of the most imposing objects in Paris. It 



PARIS THE BEAUTIFUL. 55 

towers aloft to the height of more than one hundred and fifty 
feet. It is one hundred and forty feet wide and seventy feet 
thick. The central arch is a curve forty-five feet wide and 
ninety feet high, and the smaller and transverse one is sixty 
feet high and twenty-five feet wide. From the summit of the 
Arch you can look down twelve grand avenues that center at 
its base, averaging perhaps two hundred feet wide, bordered by 
double rows of trees, flanked by the finest residences of the 
city, and paved with concrete, over which the carriages roll so 
smoothly that they hardly make any noise. 



PARIS TO PISA. 

We left Paris at 8 150 a. m., via Paris, Lyons and Mediter- 
ranean Railway. Passing through the beautiful forest of Fon- 
tainbleau, a little after noon, we reached Dijon, the ancient 
home of the Dukes of Burgundy, and at 7 p. m., we came to 
Macon, the seat of the wine trade for the eastern part of 
France. Macon is a dirty, irregular old place, with a mediaeval 
appearance that gives little promise of interest to the traveler. 
Our only reason for stopping there, was to make a break in 
the long journey from Paris to Turin. It was the home of 
Lamartine, a fine statue of whom adorns one of the public 
parks. We left at 3:50 A. m., and at daylight got our first and 
best view of the Alps, at Aix-le- Bains. This was an old Ro- 
man watering-place, and its waters still have great reputation. 
Queen Victoria expects to visit these waters next m.onth. She did 
not tell me so, but I found it out. At Modane,.we crossed 
the Italian border, and were subject to the usual farcical cus- 
toms' examination. It generally consists in putting down 
your portmanteau, and acting as though you were going 
to open it, when the officer asks you something in Italiaii, and 
you respond "no," and shake your head in English, and he 
will "chalk" you, and you pass on. They are, however, a 
little more strict than usual at this place. 

After leaving Modane, the train enters the Mt. Cenis tun- 
nel, nearly eight miles in length. I have read so many descrip- 
tions of this famous tunnel, which I know to be failures, that 
I shall not add to the list. Leaving the main tunnel, we passed 
at least a dozen smaller ones in the next twenty miles. We 
crossed very often the waters of the beautiful Dora river, that 
dashed down, bearing away the melting snows and looked as 
though it was the paradise of the mountain trout. We often 
ran around the nose of some mountain side, whence we could 

S6 



PARIS TO PISA. 57 

look down into a yawning chasm 800 to 1,000 feet. Once off 
the track, we would never stop till the bottom were reached. 
At length the gorge widened slightly, and we came into view 
of Susa, the Segusio of the ancient Romans. Looking out of 
the window, we get a view of a triumphal arch 44 feet high 
and 39 feet wide, erected by the Romans, A. d. 8. This grand 
old arch, though crumbling under the hammer ol the ice king, 
and gradually dissolving under the showers of the storm god, 
lifts its proud form to the gaze of modern travelers, a witness 
to the intense desire of man for immiortality — e'en though it 
be but earthly immortality. 

About I p. M., we reached Turin, and found most excel- 
lent quarters at Hotel Trombetta. Turin was founded by the 
Taurini, an ancient Ligurian tribe. It was destroyed by Han- 
nibal, 218 B. c. ; subsequently re-erected ; was the capital of 
Piedmont till 141 8, when it became subject to the Dukes of 
Savoy, who often resided there. In 1859 it became the capital 
of Italy, and so remained till 1865. It has always been the 
center of the struggle for unity. It possesses the most indus- 
trious and enterprising people of the nation, and is to Italy 
about what Chicago is to the United States. Everybody there 
is busy and brisk. Its streets are regularly laid out, crossing 
each other nearly always at right angles. Street cars and tram- 
ways run all through the city, and it is as guiltless of the Paris 
and London system of cabs as one of our Western towns. 
The people are very obliging and kind to strangers. I have 
reason to believe, also, that they are honest. This forenoon, 
while going through the Academy of Antiquities, our guide, 
who could not speak a word of English, had been very oblig- 
ing, and had done his very best. Strange to say, too, it 
was not long till I could understand almost everything he 
told me. On bidding him farewell, I slipped a franc into 
his hand — at least I aimed to do so ; but by mistake slipped 
a gold, French Napoleon — 20 franc piece. He followed me 
two blocks, and handed it back, saying it must be a mistake, 
putting his hand upon his breast to let me know that manhood 
to him was worth more than a Napoleon. 

I relate this incident merely to show that people here are 



58 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

no more dishonest than at home. It is no exception to the 
general rule, so far as our experience goes. Bro. Errett and 
I have had no cause of complaint from any public servant, no 
trouble with hotel-keepers or tradesmen. It may be that we 
have not reached "the place " yet; but if my present experi- 
ence holds out, I shall go back home with the impression 
that there is something wrong with those travelers who have 
great stories to tell of their mistreatment at the hands of 
Europeans. 

The great curiosity of Turin is its Museum of Antiquities, 
embracing Babylonian, Egyptian, Grecian, Roman, Cyprian, 
Etruscan and Sardinian collections. Its Egyptian collection is 
considered one of the finest in the world. The few finest speci- 
mens that I can mention in this letter are, (i) A colossal statue of 
Seti II. in red sandstone ; (2) a red granite statue of Amenophis 
XL, a smallar one in black granite; (3) a black statue of Ram- 
eses II. (Sesostris), whose mummy we expect to see when we 
get to Egypt, as it has lately been unrolled and placed in the 
museum at Boulac ; (4) mummies of kings and queens, of 
crocodiles, dogs, cats, birds, and all other kinds of household 
pets. It seems that Egyptian ladies were as fond of their pets 
in their day as the American and English ladies are now. 
To the credit of the Continental ladies be it said, we have 
not seen any such disgusting exhibitions of taste as are some- 
times displayed by our own countrywomen. I have seen but 
one little poodle led around on the Continent, and that 
was by an English " dude." 

One of the saddest sights in this collection was the mum- 
mies of little babes. When I thought with what sorrowful 
love their parents had laid away the dear little forms, thousands 
of years ago, and now saw them torn from their resting pla- 
ces and brought to a foreign land, to be gazed at by strange 
and curious eyes, it seemed to me almost too sacrilegious to be 
justified in the name of civilization. It seemed to me the little 
forms were lonely and homesick. There was also a very large 
collection of the sacred beetle. This beetle was to the Egyp- 
tians an emblem not only of the Creator and Preserver, but 
also of the immortality of the soul. It was the most common 



PARIS TO PISA. 59 

article to be found among the Egyptian sacred things. It was 
worn by the hving and deposited in the grave with the dead. 
In some cases it was placed in the body when embalmed, and 
was deposited where the heart was when the person was in 
life. These beetles are made now in large quantities, and sold 
by little Egyptian boys to travelers as relics. Also, small 
household gods, from the plain wood of the humble homes of 
Egypt to the alabaster and bronze of richer classes. They had 
"poor men's gods" and "rich men's gods" then, as we do 
now, except we have reduced them to the singular number. 

In this room, are the celebrated papyrus fragments of the 
Annals of Manetho, which give a list of the Kings of Egypt 
down to the 19th dynasty, discovered by Champollion. Also 
the celebrated "Book of the Dead," edited by Lepsius. In 
the next room, the most important object is a large rectangular 
bronze plate about 2x4 feet; it sounds bell-like when struck, 
and is covered with all sorts of curious hieroglyphic inscriptions. 
It is the celebrated "Tabula Isiaca," which has puzzled the 
wits of the wise men for several centuries. It is now thought 
to be spurious, and to have been made in Rome in the time of 
Hadrian. Turning to the left, we enter the Chamber of 
Cyprian curiosities, too large and varied for me to attempt to 
describe The last room is devoted to Roman sculpture. It 
contains the busts of Roman Emperors, poets, philosophers (as 
also Greek, in Roman art). It seemed strange to be gazing 
upon the marble features of Augustus, Julius, Marcus Aure- 
lius, Nero and Caligula. Despite his bad record, the most 
pleasing and handsome of all the Roman Emperors, is Caligula. 
Then, too, we had Plato, Socrates (but not Xantippe) and An- 
tinous. In the same room is a remarkable head of Venus, one 
of the most ancient and perfect in the world. Around the 
walls was a large collection of the famous Etruscan vases, 
some of which, deeply inlaid with ivory, rival any of the fam- 
ous Sevres vases of to-day, though the Etruscans were ignor- 
ant of the art of enameling. 

In the floor of the room are mosaics of Orpheus and his 
lyre, and a lion, a goat and an ass. It is supposed that it was the 
intention of the maker to represent these animals as listenmg 



60 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

to his music ; but as Orpheus was not playing upon his lyre, I 
could not bring myself to the point of believing them to be 
listening. The picture gallery in the same building consists of 
fifteen rooms, but can not compare with those of Florence or 
other Italian centers of ancient art. - 

Wandering down the street this morning we saw a proces- 
sion crossing the street before us. It was a church funeral. 
In front were about sixty nuns, wearing white caps and aprons, 
with white capes over their shoulders and black veils over their 
heads. They were chanting, and sweetly, too. In reply to 
this, would come a half song and half wail from the priests 
who followed them. Behind these came the hearse, then the 
mourners and the rabble. We joined the latter element of the 
procession, and followed till they went into a beautiful little 
church where the services were held. These Avere quite im- 
pressive, but lasted only about fifteen minutes. We learned, 
after leaving the church, that it was the one where Rousseau, 
when an exile from Geneva, embraced the Catholic faith at 
sixteen years of age. 

Turin has a large number of small squares or piazzas, in each 
of which you will find an elegant statue. In the Piazza Carlo 
Emmanuelle is a handsome monument to Count Cavour, the 
great Italian diplomat. It represents grateful Italy presenting 
him with the civic crown, while he holdS' in his left hand a 
scroll on which are the words, "Liberal Justice in a Liberal 
State." In the Piazza San Carlo is an other monument to 
Emmanuelle Philibert, Duke of Savoy. It is a statue in bronze, 
mounted upon a granite base adorned with reliefs. On the 
west side is represented the battle of St. Quentin, gained by 
the Duke under Philip II. of Spain, against the French in 
1557, and on the east side the Peace of Chateaucambresis, which 
restored the Duchy to the House of Savoy. The Piazza 
Solferino is adorned with an elegant statue of Duke Ferdinand 
of Genoa. He is on horseback and is represented as com- 
manding at the battle of Novara. I should judge the horse to 
be twenty-five feet long, and the rest of the statue in propor- 
tion. The Piazza Savoia has an obelisk 75 feet high, to com- 
memorate the abolition of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, in 1850. 



PARIS TO PISA. 6 1 

To me this was the greatest of them all. Just in front of the 
old citadel stands a bronze statue of Pietro Micca, a brave 
young "soldat minatore, " who, at the sacrifice of his own life, 
saved the citadel of Turin in 1706, by springing a mine just as 
the French grenadiers had advanced to the gates of the citadel. 
It stands upon the spot where the mine was sprung. I presume 
there are forty such statues in the city. You can find no 
spot in the city where you can not see at least one. Often 
many are in view at once. The old church of St. John the 
Baptist is well worth a visit to Turin. Over the west portal is 
an elegant copy of Leonardo da Vinci's Tast Supper. Over the 
second altar are eighteen small pictures of rare value, by de 
Ferrari. I presume they are of great value, but they look like 
some in my father-in-law's garret at home. Behind the great 
altar is the Capella del Santissimo Sudario. It is a lofty cir- 
cular chapel of dark brown marble. It is the burial place of 
the Dukes of Savoy. In a kind of urn over the altar is pre- 
served the Santissimo Sudario, which is nothing less than a part 
of the linen cloth that was wrapped around the body of the 
Saviour after he was taken down from the cross. Of course 
neither of us had any faith in this monkish story; but zve 
wanted to see that cloth. The door of the chapel was locked, as 
it is only open during the morning mass till nine o'clock; but 
by the offering of a little franc-m<ZQ.nsQ we soon found an easy 
admission to the sacred vault. It is astonishing what an in- 
fluence a franc will exert over the argumentative mind of these 
keepers, especially among the churchmen. 

On Wednesday, Feb. 16, we left Turin for Pisa. The rail- 
road runs south along the banks of the Po. About five miles 
out of the city on our left, we see a very handsome chateau 
which was the home of the Emmanuels and where Victor I. died. 
There are many pretty towns and villages along this route, 
which add greatly to the beauty of the trip, but which are bare 
of historic association. About a mile to the east of the rail- 
road, in a broad plain, lies the famous battle ground of Ma- 
rengo, where, in 1800, was fought the battle of that name, 
which largely influenced the destiny of Europe. 

I remember reading, when but a boy, Abbott's description 



62 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

of this battle, which is so vivid and reaHstic that I copy a por- 
tion of it : 

"Before daybreak on the morning of the fourteenth of 
June, Melas, the Austrian general, having accumulated 40,000 
men, including 7,000 cavalry and 200 pieces of cannon, made 
an impetuous assault upon the French, but 20,000 in number, 
drawn up upon the plain of Marengo. Desaix, with a reserve 
of 6,000 men, was at such a distance, nearly thirty miles, from 
Marengo, that he could not possibly be recalled before the 
close of the day. The danger was frightful that the French 
would be entirely cut to pieces before any succor could arrive. 
But the quick ear of Desaix caught the sound of the heavy 
cannonade as it came booming over the plain like distant thun- 
der. He sprang from his couch and listened. The heavy and 
uninterrupted roar proclaimed a pitched battle, and he was 
alarmed for his beloved chief. Immediately he roused his 
troops, and they started upon the rush to succor their comrades. 
Napoleon dispatched courier after courier to hurry the division 
along, while his troops stood firm through terrific hours as 
their ranks were ploughed by the murderous discharges of their 
foes. At last the destruction was too awful for mortal man to 
endure. Many divisions of the army broke and fled, crying, 
'All is lost; save himself who can !' A scene of frightful dis- 
order ensued. The whole plain was covered with fugitives, 
swept like an inundation before the multitudinous Austrians. 
Napoleon still held a few squares together, who slowly and sul- 
lenly retreated, while two-hundred pieces of artillery, closely 
pressing them, poured incessant death into their ranks. 
Every foot of ground was left encumbered with the dead. It 
was now three o'clock in the afternoon. Melas, exhausted with 
toil, and assured that he had gained a complete victory, left 
General von Zach to finish the work. ' Melas is too sanguine,' 
said an Austrian veteran, who had before encountered Napoleon 
at Areola and Rivoli ; ' depend upon it, our day's work is not 
yet done. Napoleon will soon be upon us with his reserve.' 
Just then the anxious eye of the First Consul espied the solid 
columns of Desaix entering the plain. Desaix, plunging his 
spurs into his horse, outstripped all the rest, and galloped into 



PARIS TO PISA. 63 

the presence of Napoleon. As he cast a glance over the wild 
confusion and devastation of the field, he exclaimed hurriedly, 
* I see the battle is lost ; I suppose I can do no more for you 
than to secure your retreat.' ' By no means, ' Napoleon replies, 
with apparently as much composure as if he had been sitting 
by his own fireside ; ' the battle, I trust, is gained. Charge 
with your column. The disordered troops will rally in your 
rear.' Like a rock, Desaix, with his solid phalanx of 10,000 
men, met the onrolling billow of Austrian victory. At the 
same time Napoleon dispatched an order to Kellermann with 
his cavalry to charge the triumphant columns of the Austrians 
in flank. It was the work of a moment, and the whole aspect 
of the field was changed. Napoleon rode along the lines of 
those on the retreat, exclaiming, ' My friends, we have re- 
treated far enough ; it is now our turn to advance. Recollect 
that I am in the habit of sleeping on the field of battle.' The 
fugitives, reanimated by the arrival of the reserve, immediately 
rallied in their rear. The double charge in front and flank was 
instantly made. The Austrians were checked and staggered. 
A tornado of bullets from Desaix's division swept their ranks. 
They poured an answering volley into the bosoms of the French. 
A bullet pierced the heart of Desaix, and he fell, and almost 
immediately expired. His last words were, 'Tell the First 
Consul that my only regret in dying is to have perished before 
having done enough to live in the recollection of posterity.' 
The soldiers, who devotedly loved him, saw him fall, and 
rushed more madly on to avenge his death. The swollen tide 
of uproar, confusion and dismay now turned, and rolled in 
surging billows in the opposite direction. Hardly one moment 
now elapsed before the Austrians, flushed with victory, found 
themselves overwhelmed by defeat. In the midst of this 
terrific scene, an aid rode up to Napoleon and said, 'Desaix is 
dead !' Napoleon pressed his head convulsively with his hand, 
and exclaimed, mournfully, ' Why is it not permitted me to 
weep? Victory at such a price is dear!' The French now 
made the welkin ring with shouts of victory. Indescribable 
dismay now filled the Austrian ranks as wildly they rushed be- 
fore their unrelenting pursuers. Their rout was utter and 



64 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

hopeless. When the sun went down on this field of blood, 
after twelve hours of the most frightful carnage, a scene was 
presented horrid enough to appal the heart of a demon. More 
than 20,000 human beings were strewn upon the ground, the 
dying and the dead weltering in gore, and in every conceivable 
form of disfiguration." 

In about four hours after leaving Turin, we pass through 
a long tunnel, and begin rapidly to descend the mountain-side. 
Soon the hill-sides are dotted with the handsome villas of 
the Genoese, and in about a quarter of an hour we enter the 
depot at Genoa. 

There are many things about Genoa that will repay a visit 
to those who have plenty of time ; but being hurried for time 
in which to see Rome and Naples properly we concluded to 
pass by Genoa. 

Our train stopped long enough to permit us to walk out 
into the beautiful square near the station, and see the magnifi- 
cent statue of Christopher Columbus, which all Americans 
passing through Genoa should see. The guard at the depot 
was, at first, not disposed to allow us to pass out, but by sum- 
moning all the Italian we could muster and employing a good 
deal of sign-language, we at last suceeded In informing him 
that we were from " L' Amerique, " and wanted to see "Chris- 
topher Columbo, " he at once relaxed, and, tipping his hat, re- 
plied. "Si, Si, Signor, " and allowed us to pass out. He is the 
only man on the continent to whom I rather regret not to have 
given a franc. From Genoa to Pisa, it is one hundred miles, 
and the train runs it in four hours. The railroad runs along 
the Mediterranean, and passes through the following places : 
La Spezia, the chief war-harbor of Italy, since 1861, Sarzana, 
the old Roman Luna. It has been a strategic point, fought 
for and ruled over by the ancient Romans, the Florentines, 
Tuscans, Genoese, French and Sardinians. It was the birth- 
place of Pope Nicholas V. , the founder of the Vatican. 

About ten o'clock at night we reached Pisa, and were 
driven to the Hotel Victoria. It takes but one day to see Pisa 
as, aside from its four great curiosities, it has nothing of im- 
portance. These, by the way, are all in a space not more than 



PARIS TO PISA. 65 

ten acres in extent. First, as you approach from the city, rises 
the magnificent Campanile, or bell tower, commonly known 
"as the Leaning Tower. It was constructed for a clock tower. 
It is one hundred and seventy-nine feet high, and is thirteen feet 
out of perpendicular. It is not certain whether the settling of 
the foundation produced it. They do not allow fewer than 
three to ascend at one time ; but the keeper is very accomodat- 
ing, and for a consideration will always produce a " third party" 
if necessary. Here it was that Galileo made his experiments. 
The tower has seven bells, the heaviest of which only weighs 
six tons. Next after the Campanile comes the Duomo, or 
Cathedral. This is one of the handsomest edifices I have seen 
in Europe. Its proportions are so perfect, appointments so 
complete, and its variegated marble walls so beautiful, that it 
seems fully to satisfy the hunger of the eye. It appears to 
rest one to look at it. It is in Tuscan style of architecture, 
and was erected by the Pisans to commemorate a great naval 
victory, and was consecrated by Pope Gelasius II., a. d. 1118. 
You enter the building through the only ancient bronze door left 
it, which contains twenty-four Scripture representations. One of 
them, the baptism of Christ, clearly indicates his immersion. 
He is represented as being in water up to his neck, and the 
waves are clearly seen ready to submerge him. One of the 
first things that strike your attention upon entering, is a 
beautiful statue of the Madonna and child, which adorns the 
holy water font. It was designed by Michael Angelo. The 
Cathedral contains one large altar and twelve small ones. The 
designs of the latter are all attributed to Angelo. The choir is 
filled with apostles, landscapes and animals. But by far the 
most beautiful of all is the mosaic in the dome, which repre- 
sents Christ between Mary and St. John. 

Of course the hanging lamp that swayed and suggested to 
Galileo the idea of a pendulum was inspected. It also suggested 
to us the idea of a pendulum. Next after the Cathedral comes 
the Baptistery, begun a, d., 1153, but not finished till 1278. 
It is circular in structure, and is about 100 feet wide. The 
baptistery in the center is very admirably adapted for immer- 
sion, and the bottom is marble mosaic made to represent waves. 



66 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

Just to your left as you leave the Baptistery is the Campo 
Santo, founde.d and grounded by Archbishop Ubaldo, a. d. 
Iti8. After the failure of the Crusaders, he conveyed fifty- 
three ship-loads of earth from Calvary, that the dead 
saints might rest in sacred soil. That being a very expensive 
matter, and the demand for holy ground being greater than the 
supply, they started a holy ground factory, and by a slight 
ceremonial blessing, holy ground could be made out of any 
common "dirt." It is not an uncommon thing to have holy 
ground in America now. The only other object, or real curi- 
osity, was a little Pisan Gothic church, just across the Arno from 
our hotel. It is called the Maria Delia Spina, because it con- 
tains a part of the veritable crown of thorns. We left Pisa 
Thursday p. m., and in about two hours reached Florence, 
sixty miles distant. 



FLORENCE THE GENTEEL. 

Florence is a city of 170,000 inhabitants, if you include its 
suburbs, and but little more than half that, if you do not. It 
was founded in the first century b. c, and the name is derived 
from the Latin Florentia — tJic jioiirisJiing. Its history for the first 
eleven centuries is one of sack and pillage at the hands of barbarim 
hordes. In the time of Charlemagne it was given a municipal 
government, and then came the long struggle between the pie- 
beans and patricians, Guelphs and Ghibellines, popes and em- 
perors. It is called " the city of fair flowers and flower of 
fair cities. " It is usually much frequented by travelers upon 
account of its gentle climate ; but while we were there it was 
bitterly cold, and we failed to experience the poetic emotions, 
that have characterized so many descriptions of it. The city 
is divided by "the gentle Arno," Avhich I expected to see 
winding its way in crystal stream, but instead found a swollen 
flood tearing along at almost a railway gait, dirty enough to 
have filled the heart of a Missouri-river ' * mud-cat ' ' with delight. 
Yet I presume there is no city in the world that manifests a 
higher degree of culture than Florence — 

" Where'er our charmed and wondering gaze we turn, 
Art, history and tradition wait to claim 
Our deepest thought ; statues and marble groups 
Adorn the streets ; the very stones have tongues ; 
The holy fanes, the towers are eloquent." 

The first place we visited in Florence was the Piazza della 
Signoria, which for two hundred years was known as the Piazza 
del Gran Duca, but recently has taken on again its original 
name. It is a large open square, considerably larger than a 
block in our American cities. It was originally not half so 
large, but has been increased by tearing away churches, pal- 
aces and houses. The first object to arrest the attention is the 



68 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

imposing and massive building known as the Palazzo Vecchio, 
This building possessed a peculiar fascination for me, in the 
fact that it was the prison of Savonarola, the great reformer in 
the Catholic Church, who was_ burned to death in the open 
square. In a book entitled "Walks about Florence," by S. 
and J. Horner, I read : " It is with a sadder but more rever- 
ential feeling we recall the last hours of the other occupant of 
this tower dungeon ; for here the courageous but sensitive 
Girolamo Savonarola endured forty days' confinement, and 
here he lay during the intervals of torture, at times succumb- 
ing to acute bodily sufferings, but with unwavering faith in his 
sacred mission which sustained him through th-' final tragedy 
in the Piazza." 

Savonarola was born at Ferrara September 21, 1452, and 
was intended by his parents for the medical profession. He 
was very fond of religious literature, music and poetry. At 
the age of twenty he became so disgusted with the vices of the 
day that he desired to retire to a monastery, but was deterred 
out of respect to the wishes of his parents. He, however, 
did so at the age of twenty-three years, at Bologna, where he 
most rigidly adhered to the requirements of his ' order. In 
1482 he was sent to Tuscany to preach. His reputation soon 
extended, and he was listened to by all the great of 
the land, as well as by the humbler classes, who flocked to his 
ministry as the Jews to the preaching of John the Bap- 
tist. In a few years he was elected prior of San Marco. 
Here he continued his bitter invectives against the evils of the 
time, till it ceased to be a tirade and became accepted as a 
policy of war. This drew down upon him the enmity of the 
great Medici family, represented by Lorenzo. He was at last 
summoned to Rome, but hesitated about going, fearing for his 
life. A cardinal's hat was offered him, which, coming as a 
bribe to silence, he spurned. He was at last arrested and tor- 
tured, but no confessions of guilt could be wrung from him. 
An able review article sums up the story of his death more 
graphically than I could possibly tell it. "On the 22d, 1498, 
it was announced to Savonarola and his friends, Domenico and 
Maruffi, that they were to be executed at five next morning ; 



FLORENCE THE GENTEEL. 7 1 

our heroic preacher was thoroughly resigned to his share of 
the doom, saying to Domenico, ' Knowest thou not, it is not 
permitted to a man to choose the mode of his own death?* 
The three friends partook of the sacrament of the Holy Sup- 
per, administered by Savonarola. He said, ' We shall soon 
be there, where we can sing with David, ' Behold, how good 
and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.' 
They were then taken to the Tribunal, where they were 
divested of all their priestly decorations, during which the 
Bishop took Savonarola by the hand, saying, 'Thus I exclude 
thee from the church militant and triumphant.' 'From the 
church militant thou mayest, ' exclaimed Savonarola, ' but from 
the church triumphant thou canst not; that does not belong to 
thee.' The last that was beheld of him was his hand uplifted 
as if to bless the people ; the last that was heard of him, ' My 
Savior, though innocent, willingly died for my sins, and should 
I not willingly give up this poor body out of love to him ?' 
The cinders of the bodies of the martyred friars were carted 
away and thrown into the River Arno. Of course, shortly 
after his death, the tide of feeling turned. 

" Raffaele painted him among the doctors of the church, in 
the very halls of the Vatican. As to his writings, they were 
declared by the very Pope Alexander VI. to be free from all 
blame. Of course, too, superstition has surrounded with 
especial sorrow his persecutors; one, Giovanni Maretti, per- 
ished miserably, crying out in t-errible anguish, 'Oh, this 
hand, the friar is torturing it. ' The Franciscans received the 
reward promised for their opposition to the father ; but when 
the first payment was made to them, the chamberlain said, as 
he handed over the money, ' Take the price of the blood of 
the just. ' 'The prophets without arms,' says Machiavelli, 
'have always got the worst of it.' Savonarola was a prophet 
without arms ; assuredly he was worsted visibly in the strife ; 
but he was an illustrious precursor of those opinions which, in 
the course of a few years, shook Rome to its center. The 
principles he had proclaimed, the changes he sought to effect, 
were published and brought about by a youth living while 
Savonarola was dying. Martin Luther, since the day of his 



72 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

martyrdom, much controversy has been held as to whether or 
no he belonged to Rome. Rome assuredly cast him out and 
burnt him as a heretic. " 

The bishop who presided at his execution, said — but his 
words more especially apply to the friar Domenico, " Let us 
send him to death; a miserable friar more or less is of small 
consequence." On the spot where he died there is now a large 
fountain throwing up its crystal floods. In the center is a 
figure of Neptune surrounded by sea horses and Tritons. It 
is very old, and attributed to Bartolommeo Ammanati. I do 
not know that Mr. Ammanati was drunk when he made it ; 
but he certainly made a very drunken-looking Neptune. Close 
by is the statue of Cosimo I., mounted upon a horse, and 
presenting a very handsome appearance. To the right of the 
fountain, as you face the Vecchio, is a porch of three arches 
that strike every eye with their beauty. Michael Angelo said 
they were perfect, and advised the continuing of the archway 
all around the Piazza. It is called the Loggia de Lanzi, from 
the Swiss lancers, who were stationed there under Cosimo I. It 
was built for a place where the magistrates were to be inducted 
into oflfice and for the other uses of a town hall. This is filled 
with the finest collection of sculptures I saw while in Europe. I 
had heard of them so often that they seemed like old acquaint- 
ances. There were Cellini's "Perseus Slaying the Gorgon," 
"The Rape of the Sabines," " Hercules Slaying the Centaur," 
"Dying Patroclus Supported by Ajax. " To the credit of the 
Florentines, be it said, these noble specimens of art, though 
standing out in the open air, are not defaced by pencil-marks 
nor print. If they were in America the visitor would most 
probably see the body of the Dying Centaur covered with 
"Killed because he would not take Warner's Safe Cure, ' or 
the body of Ajax bearing the strange words, "He Smoked 
Durham Tobacco." There is such a thing as too much enter- 
prise. It was in this same square that Christ was once pro- 
claimed King over the Republic of Florence. 

The two great art galleries of Florence are the Uffizi Palace 
and the Pitti Palace. The former was originated by the Medici 
family, and supplemented by others till it is now in some re- 



FLORENCE THE GENTEEL. 73 

spects the most wonderful in the world. Though less exten- 
sive than the Louvre or the Vatican, it is filled with master- 
pieces, which give a history of the rise and progress of art. 
Twenty-five rooms crammed and jammed Everywhere you 
will meet with a bust of some of the Medici family, till the 
impression creeps over you imperceptibly that it is a great 
Medici advertisement. Besides paintings and sculpture you 
will find an extensive Etruscan collection of two rooms filled 
with vases and urns handsomely painted, and telling the story 
of ancient Etruscan joy and sorrow, hope and fear, happiness 
and disappointment, as perfectly as man can do it. One room is 
full of coins and medals, showing the money of Italy for hun- 
dreds of years back, and about ten thousand imperial medals. 

The Pitti Palace was originated by Luca Pitti, the sworn 
foe of the Medici family. It is the present Florentine resi- 
dence of King Humbert. The chief attraction is its paintings, 
which rival those of the Uf^zi. It has halls of Mars, Apollo, 
Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and many others. In this palace is 
Salvator Rosa's great picture of Diogenes throwing away his 
drinking-cup on seeing a youth drink out of .his hands. 
Prominent among the Florentine attractions are its churches, 
and chief among them is the Cathedral. It is five hundred 
feet long, three hundred and eighty-seven feet high, three hun- 
dred and six feet wide. The nave is one hundred and fifty feet 
high, and the side aisles one hundred feet. Overarching all 
this huge pile rises the grand dome one hundred and forty feet 
wide and nearly as high as wide. It was almost two centuries in 
process of construction, and is the result of the united labors of 
some of the greatest architects of Europe. The dome served 
Michael Angelo as a model for the dome of St. Peter's at 
Rome. One day a friend remarked that he had an opportu- 
nity to surpass the dome at Florence. His reply was, " I will 
make her sister dome larger; yes, but not more beautiful." 
The interior is somewhat dim and disappointing except in pro- 
portions, but the outside, being composed of marble of several 
colors, gives in the sunlight a very handsome appearance. 

The Campanile, or Bell Tower, is the work of Giotto, who 
in early life was a shepherd boy. Cimabue, the artist, travel- 



74 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

ing one day, near Florence, saw him watching the flock, and, 
to amuse himself, drawing pictures of his sheep upon a piece 
of slate„ Seeing the great natural talent of the lad, he begged 
his father to allow him to educate him. 

The story of Giotto has often been told, but our poet, 
Longfellow, speaks of it in pleasing verse : 

" In the old Tuscan town stands Giotto's tower, 
The hly of Florence blossoming in stone — 
A vision, a delight, and a desire. 
The builder's perfect and centennial flower." 

The Campanile can be ascended by taking four hundred 
and fourteen steps, and will well repay the toil by the fine view 
from the summit. John Ruskin says : " The characteristics of 
power and beauty occur more or less in different buildings — 
some in one and some in another. But all together, all in 
their highest possible relative degrees, they exist, as far as I 
know, only in one building in the world — the Campanile of 
Giotto at Florence, . . . the model and mirror of perfect 
architecture." Just across the street from the Cathedral stands 
the Baptistery. It is supposed by some to have been an 
ancient temple of Mars, doubtless from the fact that it is com- 
posed of antique marbles and pillars irregularly put together. 
The exact time when it was built can not be determined, but it 
was' finished a. d. 725. It is octagonal in structure, and is 
nearly one hundred feet in diameter. It is built of black and 
white marble, peculiar to Tuscany. 

Its principal attractions are its three bronze doors, two of 
which Michael Angelo declared worthy to be gates of Para- 
dise. In the center stood originally an octangular basin, 
twelve feet in diameter. It was four and one-half feet deep, 
and could contain twelve candidates at one time. At every 
alternate angle was a cavity for a priest to stand and adminis- 
ter baptism. This font was destroyed by Francisco de Medici 

in 1576. 

Dante in his Inferno speaks of breaking some part of 
the font for the purpose of saving one who was drown- 
ing, from which it would seem that immersion was the practice 
in his day. This act of his seems to have caused him to be greatly 



FLORENCE THE GENTEEL. 



75 



misunderstood, and only added to his unpopularity among his 
countrymen. 

Mary Powell has well told the story of the great poet: 
"In the streets of Florence might have been seen an 
austere, spectral-looking man, with something noble in his 
aspect, who, as he passed along, now gravely nodded to the 
learned Brunetto ; now 
paused to chat for a few 
minutes with the noble 
Guido Cavalcanti ; now 
smiled familiarly at Gi- 
otto the painter, or laid 
his hand on his shoulder 
and asked with interest 
what progress he was 
making in his famous 
Coronation of the Vir- 
gin, or described to him 
a vision of his own, the 
marriage of St. Francis 
with Poverty, in such 
vivid, burning words, 
that the artist hastened 
home and made a rough 
sketch of it for future use. That man was Dante Allighieri. 
He was born in Florence in 1265. He was of good birth and 
education; of a thoughtful, melancholic temperament; had 
alread}/ fought in two battles ; had married unhappily ; and 
had plunged into public life. He is said to have been intrusted 
with fourteen embassies. He was also one of the priors or 
chief magistrates in Florence in 1300, and, siding with the 
Bianchi, he opposed a project of sending for Charles of Valois 
to silence the dissensions of the city; in which we must esteem 
him a true patriot. He was, however, overruled. Charles of 
Valois was invited to Florence, and speedily drove the white 
Guelphs out of it, never to return, under penalty of being 
burnt alive. 

" Among these exiles was Dante, who, however, did not im- 




DANTE ALLIGHIERI. 



'jQ AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

mediately quit Tuscany, but assisted the Bianchi in various 
fruitless attempts to enter the city. At length, with a bitter 
heart, he shook off the dust on his feet against it, and pro- 
ceeded, depressed and destitute, to the Court of Cane Grande 
della Scala, Lord of Verona. Here, he says, he found how. 
salt is the taste of another man's bread, and how hard it is to 
climb another man's stairs. His rough, sarcastic nature was 
little appreciated by the luxurious patron who sheltered him ; 
he winced under his home truths and terrible plainness, and 
asked him one day, in a marked manner, how it was that the 
court-jester was much more popular. ' There is nothing to 
surprise one in it,' replied Dante, gravely. 'Similitude of 
tastes is the chief bond of friendship. ' He wandered forth to 
other courts — to Padua, to Urbino, to Bologna. Meanwhile 
his wondrous poem was shadowing itself forth, and taking the 
gloomy hue of his ideas. Its subject was dark and horrible; 
its treatment was severe ; yet it boasted flowers of exquisite 
poetry that sprang up like the vegetation in the neighborhood 
of a volcano. He interwove it with the philosophy and the- 
ology of the age ; he introduced living friends and foes into the 
drama with questionable taste, and bestowed on them imagin- 
ary woes, according to his own judgment of their merits and 
demerits. Yet his pages were woven with immutable truths 
and abounded in lofty morality. Printing was not as yet in- 
vented ; but no sooner was his Divina Comincdia completed than 
it was copied, recopied, commented upon with eager interest 
from one end of Italy to the other. And, as soon as printing 
multiplied copies to a hitherto undreamed of extent, it became 
sown over the land thick as leaves on Vallambrosa — the next 
Italian book printed to the Bible. Five hundred years have 
passed, and its spell, as of some old oracle, still lies on us." 
This wonderful man died in 1321, and for more than five hun- 
dred years he had no monument in Florence. In 1865, the 
600th anniversary of the poet's birth, Victor Emmanuel, King 
of Italy, unveiled a monument to his memory. It consists of 
a colossal statue of the poet surrounded by four lions. The 
monument stands in the Piazza Santa Croce, the open square 
in front of the Church of Santa Croce. This building: derived its 



FLORENCE THE GENTEEL. ^7 

name from the fact that its corner foundation stone was laid on the 
day of the Santa Croce— Holy Cross. It is a sculptured poem, 
a marble flower, and is the Westminster Abbey of the Floren- 
tines. Men from almost every nation beneath the skies rest in 
its sacred vaults, side by side with Italy's illustrious dead. 
Byron, in his Childe Harold, says : 

" In Santa Croce's holy precincts lie 
Ashes which make it hoher ; dust which is, 
Even in itself an immortality, 
Though there were nothing save the past and this. 
The particle of those sublimities 
Which have relapsed to chaos; here repose 
Angelo's, Alfieri's bones, and his, 
The starry Galileo, with h's woes ; 
Here Machiavelli's earth returned to whence it rose." 

Over the principal entrance are the initials I. H. S. , now so 
commonly seen in all Catholic Churches, and which stand for 
lesus Hominum Salvator. These letters were placed in front of 
this church by the originator, S. Bernardino. One of his flock, 
being engaged in the manufacture of playing cards, was re- 
proved sharply by the saint. He replied that he had no other 
means of making a living, when the saint told him to put the 
above initials on blank cards. He did so, and they spread like 
wildfire. The church is four hundred and sixty feet long and 
one hundred and twenty-five feet wide. The tomb of Michael 
Angelo Buonarotti consists of a marble bust, said to be a 
faithful likeness of that great Florentine, around which, in alle- 
gorical design, Sculpture, Architecture and Painting appear as 
mourners. Of all the great Florentines Angelo is without a 
peer. Poet and painter, architect of the grandest building 
man ever erected on the earth, sculptor of the finest statue 
ever turned from the chisel of an artist, and a great military and 
civil engineer. 

"Nothing that came forth from his hands was mean or 
poor. His faults were those of superabundant strength and 
force. St. Peter's at Rome is one among the buildings which 
display his power as an architect. The pamtings in the Sistine 
Chapel have already been referred to as illustrations of his 
genius as a painter. As a sculptor he is perhaps unrivaled 



78 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



since the palmy days of Greece and Rome. In the great en- 
gineering works of his time, his advice and co-operation were 
eagerly sought, both in peace and war. That he is less known 




MICHAEL ANGELO BUONAROTTI. 



as a poet is mainly due to the fact that his sonnets are often 
mystical in thought and obscure in expression." — Italian Pict- 
ures. Angelo chose the position of his tomb, so that when 
the doors of the church were open he could see the dome of 
the Cathedral. We have grave doubts, however, that he has 
been benefited materially by his choice of location. 

Florence abounds in beautiful suburbs, walks, drives and 
parks. Just beyond the Pitti Palace are the BoboH Gardens, that 
are laid out in such regularity and exactness as to be almost pain- 
ful. Twice a week they are open to the public. The day we visited 
them a gendarme stopped us, and, in very polite Italian and 
pantomime, informed us they were not open that day. We 
desired to see them, and could not afford to wait for the regu- 
lar open day, and had to resort to bribery and corruption — one 



FLORENCE THE GENTEEL. 



79 



franc. This opened the pahn of his hand and the entrance at 
the same time. It is a perfect wilderness of beautiful cedars, 
fine statues and playing fountains. From the summit of the 
hill above the palace we got one of our best panoramic views 
of the city. Florence has always been a favorite residence of 
Americans when abroad. Hiram Powers, known for his Greek 
Slave, made it his residence for thirty years. 



THE ETERNAL CITY. 

We left Florence at 8 a. m. , and at 2 p. m. found ourselves 
in Rome, We passed Chiusi, the ancient Clusium, one of the 
twelve capitals of the Etruscans, and which is now a place of 
5,000 inhabitants, who are largely endeavoring to make an 
honest living by manufacturing Etruscan antiquities and selling 
them to the traveler. At one p. m. we crossed the Tiber, a muddy 
and insignificant stream bordered by Eucalyptus trees which 
grow in great profusion on its banks. We entered Rome 
near the Porta Maggiore. It seemed a little odd to be enter- 
ing the city of the Caesars in a railway coach. We should 
have preferred entering in a war chariot as more in harmony 
with the swellings of our heart. We were becoming recon- 
ciled to this, however, when looking out of the cab on our 
left, .we saw two men in a field, with pointer dogs and breech- 
loaders shooting snipe. Breech-loaders and pointer dogs un- 
der the very walls of the Eternal City ! Our enthusiasm was 
gone, and we entered the station with as little feeling as if we 
were going into one of our own cities. 

We arrived in Rome just in time for "the Carnival." It 
has been my pleasure more than once to witness the Mardi 
Gras carnival in New Orleans, which, of course, is an imitation 
of the great one held here. It is not, in Rome, what it once 
was, when the church ruled Italy with a scepter of iron, but it 
is still big enough and foolish enough to disgust any matter-of- 
fact American. 

The festivities of the Carnival are of very remote origin, 

being founded upon the pagan Saturnalian games. The church 

took possession of many pagan customs, and transferred 

them to her own bosom, changing them just enough to give 

them a flavor of Christianity. This carnival, though changed 

from its pagan cast, still remains a modern instance of the love 

of mankind for diversion, or. as some would say, a standing 
80 



THE ETERNAL CITY. 8 1 

example of the depravity of our race. For eleven days pre- 
ceding the celebration of Lent, when fasting becomes the 
order of the day for forty days, every one gives himself up to 
gaiety and merriment. Every one is a Mark Tapley, and if 
that illustrious gentleman were in Rome during the carnival he 
would get no particular credit for "being jolly," 

We have an American term of "playing fast and loose," 
which, if you Avill turn it round, will fit this Roman festival, for 
here it is " loose and fast. " " Loose " eleven days and ' ' fast " 
forty. Cami — (flesh), vale — (farewell), is to me somewhat like 
the feast of the Egyptians, who always had a skeleton in their 
midst. The skeleton of Lent hangs like a dark cloud over the 
festival. The people, however, seem to give themselves up to 
the maxim, " Live while you may live. " We arrived yester- 
day just in time to seethe "select gala corso at the Via Nazi- 
onale, " or, to put it in plain English, the select grand procession 
on National street. It being Sunday, there was no throwing of 
flour, flowers, nor any other annoying things on the people, 
which is allowable on other days. This is prohibited, that all 
may then appear in their ' ' Sunday best. " Rome is the Paris of 
Italy. The best of ever^^thing Italian, from men and women 
down, centers here. The rich ride in as fine carriages drawn 
by as handsome steeds as you can find in America. The sol- 
diers — and Rome is full of soldiers at present — clank along the 
street, spurred, and with sabers rattling on the stones. The 
gendarmes look upon you from every corner. The olive- 
browed daughters of Tuscany and Etruria smilingly salute 
you, the dark-visaged and cloaked dweller of the Campagna 
eyes you as though he would put a stiletto through you for a 
half franc ; and last but not least in mmiber, the poor lazzaroni 
beseech you at every step for " Merci. " 

We are stopping at the Hotel Continental, a large house 
very much on the plan of our American hotels, and much pat- 
ronized by English-speaking people. 

Rome is a trinity of cities, uniting in itself the three periods 
of its life known to the world as Pagan, Papal and Modern 
Rome. The first centers around the Forum, the second around 
St. Peter's^ while the third finds its center of life at the Piazza 



82 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

del Popolo, into which the cabs and tramways run, and 
whence they diverge to all parts of the city. As the greatest 
attractions Rome presents to the traveler are its ancient ruins, 
we naturally made our way to these first. Our first day of sight- 
seeing was upon the Capitoline Hill. This, in Latin, is the 
Head Hill, and is probably so called because it has always 
been the seat of Roman authority, and the fountain of Roman 
life. Here was uplifted the sword, emblem of Roman power. 
It is a strange coincidence that the hill at Jerusalem, 
where the cross was uplifted, was also called the Place of a 
Skull. The Hill of the Head seemed to conquer the Place of 
a Skull, but Calvary has at last triumphed over Capitoline. 
On the spot where the ancient Temple of Jupiter stood, a 
church of Christ now stands, but is placed transversely, facing 
west while the temple faced south. '^It was the custom of the 
ancient Christians to build transversely, thus signifying that 
Christianity was not only across, but that it broke the back- 
bone of heathenism. ^ 

The name of the church is the Santa Maria in Ara Cceli. 
In this church is the famous, or rather infamous. Bambino. It 
is a carved image of the infant Christ, said to have been 
wrought by a pilgrim from olive wood from the Garden of 
Gethsemane. The story goes that the pilgrim grew sleepy at 
his task, and while napping St. Luke came down and painted 
it on the sly. It is richly ornamented with trappings and 
jewels. It is on certain occasions taken around to visit the sick, 
and so efficacious were its visits that for a while it received 
more fees than any physician in Rome. No wonder that Gib- 
bon should become disgusted with such foolishness. It was 
while he sat upon the steps of this church, listening to the 
vespers of the monks, that he formed the resolution to write 
''The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." There is an 
old column on the left of the main entrance which bears in let- , 
ters still clearly traceable the words, "A Cubiculum Augusto- 
rum," and was without doubt a pillar in the palace of that 
emperor on the Palatine Hill. 

From the church we passed around the hill to the Tarpe- 
ian Rock. This rock derives its narrie from Tarpeia, who 



THE ETERNAL CITY. 83 

betrayed the Romans — her countrymen — to the Sabines, on the 
condition that they would give her what they wore on their left 
arms. She, though her father commanded the garrison, opened 
the gates at night, expecting to receive her reward. Instead, 
however, of giving her the jewelry they wore, they piled up 
their shields upon her till she was killed by the load. 
Henceforth that part of the hill took her name, and the rock 
was used for the purpose of destroying traitors by hurling 
them from its summit. It is now a perpendicular rock about 
seventy feet high, and we learned that thirty feet of rubbish 
had accumulated at the base. Had any one been thrown off 
the day we saw it, he would have been caught in a mesh of 
clothes-lines that crossed and recrossed each other like tele- 
phone . wires in a large city, and upon which the degenerate 
daughters of Saturn were hanging a lot of dirty linen, that 
sent up a very unsavory smell. 

Returning from the Tarpeian Rock, we were shown where 
the cackling of the geese saved Rome. It occurred in the 
siege of Rome by the Gauls about 390 b. c. During the 
siege of the Capitol, one night, under cover of the darkness, a 
band of Gauls climbed up the steep rocky ledge, and had just 
reached the highest ledge of the rock. The watch dogs were 
silent, and it seemed that the expedition would end with the 
capture of the city, when suddenly a flock of sacred geese, 
kept in the Temple of Juno, raised the alarm and began flap- 
ping their wings. The Romans, alarmed, and discovering their 
danger, rushed forth, and Marcus Manlius, seizing the fore- 
most Gaul, dashed him over the precipice. Others coming to 
his aid, the complete overthrow of the Gauls was effected. 
This same man, afterward becoming an object of hatred to the 
patricians, when brought to trial for his life in the Campus Mar 
tius, simply pointed to the Capitol which he had saved. Find- 
ing it impossible to convict him in such a place, the court was 
adjourned to a grove, where the Capitol could not be seen. 
There he was condemned to be cast from the Tarpeian Rock. 

Making an almost entire circuit of the hill, we came at last 
to an eminence where a sight met our gaze that made our 
blood leap with a new life. Before us lay the entire forum of 



84 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



Rome with all its historic attachments. Of this I had read 
and dreamed from my boyhood, and now, as I stood over 
this semi-sacred spot, ghosts of the departed sprang up before 
my vision like partridges before the fire of the hunter. 

This place has been called "the Mecca of the law," and 
well indeed does it merit the title. From this place has come 
down to us the great legacy of Roman Law, which is the foun- 




!J^ 



dation of all law to-day; and here the Roman mind was 
wrestling with the problems of government when our English 
ancestry were performing their superstitious rites, and offering 
their human sacrifices under the oaks of uncivilized Britain. 
There were nineteen forums in Rome, but so pre-eminent was 
this, that it took the proud title, Forum Romanum. Every inch of 




RAPE OF THE SABIN'E WOMEN. 



Page 85. 



THE ETERNAL CITY. 87 

this spot is the subject of interest to the traveler. It was 
originally a low, marshy spot, between the Palatine and Capi- 
toline Hills, where the people assembled from either fortifica- 
tion, to treat, parley, sport or do battle. Tarquinus 
Priscus, the fifth king of Rome, after the Latins on the 
Palatine and the Sabines on the Capitoline had united, caused 
an immense drain or sewer to be made to carry off the water 
from the Forum. In the Augustan age of Rome, six hundred 
years after it was built, it was as perfect as when first made. 
Agrippa, the public-spirited city father, who constructed many 
public buildings, among them the Pantheon, sailed in his barge 
through this sewer to the Tiber. The cleansing of this 
immense sewerage was done at the enormous expense of 
;^3,000,000. But then it was done as a city contract, you know. 
What is even more remarkable, this grand sewer is still almost as 
perfect as when it was built, and carries away the sewage of 
Rome as it did the surface water in the days of the fifth Roman 
king. Here is located the battle between Romulus and the 
Sabines When the new city had been laid out, to secure 
citizens, he opened an asylum for refugees and criminals. 
A number flocked in, but there was a great scarcity of women, 
as there always has been among such classes. To procure 
them he appointed a grand festival in honor of Neptune. 
While the games were in progress the Romans seized each a 
Sabine maiden and carried her off. It has been called in his- 
tory the Rape of the Sabines, and v.^as the cause of the war 
during which Tarpeia betrayed her countrymen. Immediately 
at our feet stands the temple of Saturn. This goes back to 
500 B. c. 

We Americans, in reckoning the early history of Rome, 
generally begin with Romulus. But eminent Roman archae- 
ologists now believe that Saturn was not a myth, but a real 
person. That he was driven out from Spain by the rebellion 
of one of his own children and came, centuries before the age 
of Romulus, to the hill where he established himself as prophet 
and king, as also priest ; that he was killed on the eastern 
slope of the hill and an altar erected to commemorate him. 
Subsequently a temple was built and the present temple of 



88 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



Saturn, some of the columns of which remain standing, is over 
the spot of his death. This they claim as the oldest temple in 
existence. 

Just a little to our left are the ruins of the temple of the 
Twelve Gods, whose images were erected here by Vettius, a. 
D. 367. This seems to have been the expiring struggle of 
paganism to perpetuate its existence. Beyond this is the tem- 




~?k 



TITUS FLAVius VESPASiANus. — Rome. 

pie of Vespasian, erected by the Emperor Domitian. He 
was born of humble parents, his father being a tax-gatherer. 
He became a successful soldier, serving in Britain and other 
Roman campaigns. Was sent by Nero to Palestine to conquer 
that rebellious people. He began the work by the storming 
of Sepphoris. Galilee was at this time under the command of 
Josephus, the proud, rich and aristocratic Jewish historian. 
Josephus possessed no military qualities, and could arouse no 
enthusiasm among his people. Commissioned to raise one 



THE ETERNAL CITY. 89 

hundred thousand men in the populous GaHlean country, he 
could raise but eight thousand. He was no match for Nero's 
best general, who marched slowly onward, destroying every- 
thing before him. Eugene Lawrence has beautifully told the 
story of his campaign: "He left behind him a bleeding, half 
desolate waste. He swept through Samaria, and the Samari- 
tan women wept over their husbands and their brothers slain 
on the hill of Gerizim. Joppa and Tiberias fell. He passed 
around Jerusalem and ravaged all Judea. Emmaus and 
Jericho, Lydda and Jamna surrendered. He killed ten 
thousand men in the heart ot Idumea. The Dead Sea echoed 
to the note of the Roman trumpets. All Palestine had felt 
the dreadful discipline of the Roman chief. Two years of 
warfare passed ; Jerusalem stood alone in the midst of its 
ruined country. At this moment Nero was dead ; Vitellius 
ruled at Rome ; a war of succession followed ; Rome was filled 
with massacres; and at last Vespasian was proclaimed em- 
peror. The impoverished soldier, the horse dealer, the ple- 
beian, was alone fitted to control that mighty empire that 
reached from the Jordan to the Thames. " He left Palestine for 
Rome and entrusted the completion of tlie conquest to his son 
Titus, a young man of twenty-seven. He died after reigning 
ten years, the first Roman emperor to transmit the throne to 
his son, and the second to die a natural death. , 

Beyond the temple of Vespasian on our left lie the 
ruins of the temple of Concord, completed b. c. 366, to com- 
memorate the close of the long- continued^truggle between the 
patricians and plebeians. Unfortunately that struggle did not 
close, but seems to be carried on to-day in all civilized coun- 
tries. Even in our own "land of the free "we are often 
disturbed by its outbursts, r 

In front of the temple of Concord and a little to our right, 
is the magnificent arch of Septimus Severus, seventy-five feet 
high and eighty-two feet broad, and having three arches. The 
middle arch is in memory of Severus, and the side arches of 
Caracalla and Geta, his sons. It was erected a. u. 203, to 
commemorate their victory over the Parthians. It was 
crowned with a brass chariot drawn by six horses, in which 



90 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

stood Severus crowned by Victory. Afterwards, when Cara- 
calla murdered his brother Geta, he had his name erased, not 
only from this arch, but from every place in the city. You 
can occasionally see places yet where the chisel has done its 
destructive work. Particularly is this noticeable in the Gold- 



CARACALLA. 

smiths' Arch in the Forum Boriarium. His reign was dis- 
graced by many acts of cruelty and perfidy. He massacred 
several thousand friends of Geta, among them Papinian, the 
eminent jurist. He was assassinated near F^dessa, at the insti- 
gation of Macrinus, who succeeded him. Later on we shall 
have occasion to speak of the Baths of Caracalla, which are 
the most extensive ruins in Rome. Between us and the arch 
is the orators' Rostra or tribune, erected by Julius Csesar. It 
is sixty-five feet long and sixteen feet wide, and gave the 
orator ample room to walk about. It derived the name Rostra 
from the iron prows of the war ships of Antium, with which it 
was adorned after the capture of that place. Southeast of the 
Rostra rises a solitary column which, till the present century, 



THE ETERNAL CITY. 



93 



was partly buried in debris, and therefore was unknown. 
Byron speaks of it as "the nameless column with a buried 
base." Upon being fully exhumed, it was identified as the 
column of Phocas, erected in honor of that tyrant, and was 
formerly crowned with his gilded statue. It was erected to 
one of the meanest of tyrants by Smaragdus, one of the most 
servile sycophants. 

South of the column is situated the temple of Caesar, near 
which he erected a new tribune. It was from this tribune that 
Mark Antony pronounced his celebrated oration which so 
aroused the Romans. 

Just over this temple from us stands the temple of Faus- 
tina. It was erected by Antoninus in honor of his wife, and 
was, after his death, rededicated to both. It is now a Catholic 
Church. Almost in front of this is a circular base, rapidly 
crumbling away and strewn with beautiful bits of marble, which 
has been identified as the temple of Vesta. 

Recent excavations have greatly modified our conception 
of the worship of Vesta and the character of the Vestal Vir- 
gins. Vesta stood in Roman religion for the worship of the 
hearthstone. One of the prime factors of Roman greatness 
was reverence for home and family. Marital fidelity was the 
mainspring of its power, and Rome became weak only 
when these principles were no longer guiding her life. No 
image or statue of Vesta was found in her temples, but a per- 
petual fire was kept burning upon her altars, of which each 
Roman city had one. The Vesta of the Empire was wor- 
shiped in a temple at Lavinium, twenty miles from Rome, on 
the Appian Way. The Vesta of the city had her temple in 
the Forum. The temple was served by priestesses called 
Vestal Virgins. They were originally four in number, but 
were afterwards increased to six. They were chosen by the 
chief priests at the age of six years, and devoted thirty years 
of their life to the service of the goddess — ten years in learn- 
ing their duties, ten in actual service, and ten in teaching 
others. Their principal duty was to see that the sacred fire 
was always kept burning, and should one of them be so unfor- 
tunate as to fail in this, she was stripped and scourged by the 



94 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

high priest. She held the power of Hfe or death in her hands 
for any criminal she might see on the streets. The highest 
officers of the realm must show her respect. The consuls 
must bow and the lictors lower their faces when she passed. 
Should one of them suffer herself to be betrayed, she was 
buried alive, and the betrayer was whipped to death in the 
Forum. I don't know that I could recommend such extreme 
measures to-day, except in so far as they apply to the be- 
trayer. 

The south boundary of the Forum is the sacred way lead- 
ing from the Capitol to the Appian Way, down which came all 
the triumphal processions of the returning conquerors. Cross- 
ing this way we stand in front of the temple of Castor and 
Pollux, dedicated to the twin sons of Jupiter by Leda, be- 
cause they aided the Romans to defeat the Latins at the battle 
of Lake Regillus, b. c. 496. Only three of these columns are 
standing, but they are very beautiful. Between this temple 
and our place of observation lies the Basilica Julia. It was 
founded by Julius Csesar with a view of enlarging the Forum^ 
and afterwards completed by Augustus. It is about one hun- 
dred and fifty feet wide and three hundred feet long. It was 
paved with white marble, some of which still remains. These 
temples and ruins all occupy a portion of territory not larger 
than two blocks in one of our x^merican cities. Just beyond 
the Forum and to the south of it lie the temple of Romulus, 
and the Basilica of Constantine, and still farther away rise the 
huge proportions of the Colosseum. Just opposite the Colos- 
seum the Sacred Way enters the Appian Way, the grand 
highway of Rome and the road traveled by Paul on his way to 
Caesar's tribunal. 

" in yon fields below 
A thousand years of silenced factions sleep — 
The Forum, where the immortal accents glow. 
And still the eloquent air breathes — burns with Cicero ! 
The field of freedom, faction, fame and blood ; 
Here a proud people's passions were exhaled, 
From the first hour of empire in the bud 
To that when further worlds to conquer failed." — Childe Harold. 



THE ETERNAL CITY.- Continued. 

The Palatine is the one of seven hills of Rome upon which 
the palaces of the Caesars were built. It is, moreover, the 
place where Romulus and Remus were cast ashore from the 
Tiber, found, and nourished by a wolf. Here the brothers de- 
termined to found a city to commemorate their wonderful 
preservation, and Remus stood upon the Aventine and saw 
six vultures, while Romulus stood upon the Palatine and saw 
twelve, and was declared victor. While Romulus was erect- 
ing the walls of his city Remus leaped over them and said, 
"Thus will the enemy enter your city." Romulus, enraged at 
this scornful act, slew him, exclaiming, " And thus we will re- 
ceive them when they come." From this incident may have 
arisen among the Romans the practice of divining by the flight 
of birds. The haruspices were a class who made a specialty 
of forecasting the future by inspecting their internal organs. 
They were always regarded as impostors by the more enlight- 
ened classes, and would stand upon a level with the people ot 
our day who pretend to see the future in the muddy grounds 
at the bottom of a coffee cup, or read life's story from the 
wrinkles in the palm of the hand. Cato said of them that 
"one haruspex can not even look at another in the streets 
without laughing." 

Pictures of Romulus and Remus suckled by the wolf are 
very common, and adorn many prominent places. There is 
one in the Capitoline Museum in the Hall of the Bronzes, 
which is supposed to be the oldest work of Roman art. Prob- 
ably erected b. c. 296 by the ^diles Cneius and Ouintus Ogul- 
nius. Cicero mentions the fact of its having been struck by 
lightnings, c. 65, and there is an injury to its right hind leg 
that would seem to support his statement. The truth of the 
matter seems to be that they were found and nursed as a 



98 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 




CAPITOLINE WOLF. 



mother would have done, by the wife of a shepherd whose 
name, Lupa, was the Latin for wolf. Romulus was an ille- 
gitimate child, but his 
descent was from the 
old Etruscans. The 
priests of Mars found 
this out and took 
charge of him, and 
at an important crisis 
in the affairs of the 
contending factions, 
who then constituted 
the Romans, he was 
brought forth as of 
the oldest family, and 
succeeded in uniting all the factions. When a small boy, I re- 
member seeing a picture of Romulus laying off the foundations 
of Rome, with a plow drawn by a heifer and a bullock. The 
heifer was the symbol of one of the factions, while the bullock 
was the symbol of the other. In using this strange team 
Romulus declared the union of the Etruscans and their 
enemies. Not a bad idea after all. Recent excavations have 
brought to light part of the wall built by Romulus. This I 
believe is now undisputed by archaeologists. Near these 
remains are some old works of the Pelasgii, long previous to 
his time. About fifty yards farther on our way we came to 
some new excavations, made last year, where the handiwork 
of the oldest of all Roman tribes, the ancient Etruscans, was 
found. Wells nearly one hundred feet deep, cut into the solid 
rock, with subterranean passages to them from the fortress 
above, have been brought to light. The marks are still seen 
which the ropes cut in the rock in the process of drawing 
water. These wells are, most probably, much older than 
Jacob's well. Passing along the Way of Victory, the oldest 
street in Roman history, we came next to the ruins of Calig- 
ula's palace, built upon previous ruins. It was from 
this point Caligula threw a bridge across the valley to the 
Capitoline Hill, over which he used to walk, dressed as Jupi- 



fl'llfi'll'lil 

'III f '' 




HARUSPEX OFFICIATING. 



Page 99. 



THE ETERNAL CITY. lOI 

ter Capitolinus. Frescoes and stucco work, as also some mar- 
ble railing, remain aloncr the stone portion of the bridge, 
where it entered his palace. In one of the rooms near is 
shown the place where his famous horse was kept, but we 
could find no remains of the golden oats on which they tried 
to feed him. In a subterranean passage a little farther on we 
came to the spot where Caligula was stabbed b}' his servants, 
who were afterwards sheltered in the house of Germanicus, his 
father. Just back of the Palace of Caligula is that of Tibe- 
rius, few things about which can be identified. In one corner 
of the yard was a magnificently constructed fish pond, where 
it is said that Tiberius used frequently to cut up the body of a 
slave and throw to his fish, in order to give them a delicate 
flavor. 

Passing another very old temple, said to be the temple of 
the Vattichino, from which we get vaticination, also Vatican, 
we came to the palaces of the Flavian family. This being the 
most modern, is also the best preserved of all these places. 
The great throne room is still paved with much of the original 
mosaic. 

The Basilica still has its seat of justice, and in front is a 
small circular mosaic upon which the prisoner used to stand 
who "appealed to Caesar." I do not suppose that Paul stood 
upon this one, for he was dead before this Basilica was erected. 
But it was erected upon the site of the previous one, and, if 
the dimensions were the same, we can reasonably suppose the 
prisoner'.s stand to be in the same place. 

In the Vatican there is a bust of Nero, before whom Paul 
stood. It is a face that is mild and gentle, and will hardly 
corroborate the character which history has proven him to have 
possessed. Born of a corrupt and wicked mother, by whose in- 
trigues he was elevated to the throne, it is not surprising that 
his life should be one of intrigue and suspicion. He con- 
ducted a long and successful war against the Parthians, quelled 
the Jewish insurrection, as also one in Britain under Queen 
Boadicea. In June, 64 a. d., in his reign, a terrible fire broke 
out, and raged for six days and seven nights. Nero was at 
Antium, and only returned when informed that his palace was 



I02 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE, 




in danger. The Romans accused him of purposely setting it 
on fire and preventing its being extinguished, that it might 

clear the ground for more beauti- 
ful buildings, which he desired to 
erect upon the burnt dLstrict. 
He is supposed by Renan to 
have had the intention of entirely 
rebuilding it and calling it Nerop- 
olis. Although he did every- 
thing possible to assist the suf- 
ferers, nothing could appease the 
feelings of the people, and, to 
divert suspicion from himself, he 
charged it upon the Christians. 
Acting as if he believed his own 
words, he began a series of bitter 
persecutions and cruel oppressions, 
which have perpetuated his name 
and character — far more correctly 
than Neropolis — in the Neronian 
Persecutions. He killed his 
mother Agrippina, his two wives, Octavia and Sabina, his 
half-brother Britannicus, and finally fled from Roman ven- 
geance and died by his own hand at the house of one of his 
freed men. 

Leaving the Basilica we entered the Tablinum, where we 
also could inspect the Triclinium or banquet-hall of the 
Romans. They were very fond of dainty dishes, such as 
nightingales, peacocks, and the tongues and brains of flamin- 
goes. Swine, too, they must have, from the Campagnian pig 
to the Asiatic wild boar. A Roman epicure could tell from 
what country a boar came by its flavor, despite the disguises 
of some fifty different ways of cooking. Caligula spent 
^400,000 upon a single repast, and Cicero had a dramatic 
friend who paid over ^4,000 for a dish of song birds. One 
epicure spent ^4,000,000 upon his appetite, and, becoming re- 
duced to a paltry ^500,000, the fear of starvation so over- 
shadowed him that he committed suicide. Petronius gives an 



^ 



NERO. — Rome, Vatican. 



THE ETERNAL CITY. 



io3 



account of one of Nero's banquets, which is quite elaborate. 
As soon as the guests were arranged, Egyptian slaves entered 




TRICLINIUM. 



and bathed their hands and feet in snow water. A great salver 
was then brought in, in the midst of which stood a bronze ass 



104 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



bearing silver panniers, filled with black and white olives. On 
his back sat old Silenus pouring sauce from a wine sack. The 
sausages were set on a gridiron, under which, in imitation of 
live coals, were heaped plums and red pomegranate kernels. On 




ARCH OF TITUS. — Rome. 



the edge of the tray were oysters and snails set in a natural 
way among the vegetables, with which they were to be eaten. 
A hen of carved wood was brought in, whose out-spread wings 
covered a nest of peacocks' eggs, to be eaten by the guests. 
When one of these was broken what seemed to be a chick, 
made of beccafico, was found. The dishes were introduced 
and removed to musical accompaniment, and one of the at 



THE ETERNAL CITY. IO5 

tendants was punished for stopping to pick up a dish, and thus 
disturbing the harmony. 

Even the carver was forced to cut to musical harmony and 
keep perfect time, a thing that must have acquired immense 
practice. For one course the vessels and dishes brought in 
were coarse and inferior, and proved mere coverings to protect 
the costly ones within. When the great wild boar came in he 
bore on his tusks two baskets of palm twigs filled with dates. 
By his side lay eight little pastry pigs. During the banquet 
the ceiling opened overhead, and down came a silver hoop, 
bearing alabaster vials of perfumes, silver cornets and other 
souvenirs for the guests. When the guests plucked fruit from 
a figure of Vertumnus on the table, they were sprinkled with 
saffron water. The wine used on the occasion was a century 
old. 

Just outside of the Triclinium was a small room where an 
over-burdened guest could retire and find relief by a dextrous 
manipulation of his finger down his throat, and from whence 
he could emerge ready for another meal. 

Quitting the Palatine Hill and descending by way of the 
Forum, we soon found ourselves in front of the Arch of Titus, 
one of the most interesting objects in Rome. It is composed 
of white marble from the Pentelic quarries near Athens, and 
was erected in honor of his conquest of the Jews, after his 
death. It has but one archway, and the reliefs in it represent 
on one side the transit of Titus, and on the other soldiers car- 
rying away the holy candlestick and utensils from the Temple 
at Jerusalem. The height of the holy candlestick as repre- 
sented thereon is about that of a man, and both in form and 
size perfectly corroborates the written description left us by 
Josephus. It is said that no Jew will walk under the arch, 
which testifies to the downfall and dismemberment of his 
nation. 

Titus was a remarkable man in many respects. He 
accompanied his father, Vespasian, to the East, when that 
general was sent by Nero a. d. 66 to conquer the rebell- 
ious Jews. When his father was made emperor he returned to 
Rome, leaving Titus to complete the work of conquest, which 



io6 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



he did by destroying the city of Jerusalem the following year. 
He was naturally somewhat brutal, but upon his accession to 

the throne his nature changed, and he 
proved himself worthy of that posi- 
^ tion. He erected many public build- 
) ings, notably the Coliseum, and Baths 
of Titus. His reign was also noted for 
many calamities, such as the destruc- 
tion of Pompeii, Herculaneum and 
Stabiae, by the eruption of Vesuvius, 
the great plague ; also a great con- 
flagration by which the Capitol, library 
of Augustus, and many other public 
buildings were destroyed. He died 
most probably from poison adminis- 
tered by his brother, Domitian, who 
succeeded him. 

It is a walk of not more than 
two blocks from the Arch of Titus 
to that of Constantine. It was erected 
TiTus.-Rome, Vatican. ^q commcmoratc the victory he 

achieved over Maxentius, his rival to the throne, who 
was defeated at the Saxa Rubra. It illustrates various 
events in his life, though a sjreat deal of the ornamentation 
was taken from an arch erected to Trajan, and is there- 
fore illustrative of Trajan's life. Each side, as Avill be 
seen in the illustration, has four Corinthian columns, sur- 
mounted by the figure of a Dacian. These of course belonged 
to Trajan's column. It was under this arch that the Emperor 
Charles V. made his entry into Rome. Though he was not 
particularly welcome to the pope, he was received with great 
splendor. Rabelais, who was then at Rome, says that 
houses were torn down by the hundred, churches were demol- 
ished and streets widened to admit the cavalcade. 

About one block from the Arch of Titus stands the Fla- 
vian Amphitheater, more commonly known as the Coliseum. 
It is said to have taken the latter name from a colossal statue 
of the Emperor Nero that stood near it, but the venerable 




THE ETERNAL CITY. 



107 



Bede who lived in the eighth century is the first person to 
mention it by that name. It is elUptical in form, and is six 
hundred and fifteen feet the long diameter and five hundred 
and ten the short. Its height is about one hundred and 
sixty feet. It was called the Flavian Amphitheater because it 



l^^^7■^J 




was built during the reigns of Vespasian, Titus and Domitian, 
the three emperors of the Flavian family. Titus opened it 
with a grand carnival, which lasted one hundred days, during 
which nine thousand beasts w^ere slain, and during the reign of 
Trajan ten thousand prisoners were forced to fight for life in 
this place. St. Ignatius was brought here from Antioch pur- 



I08 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



posely to suffer martyrdom, and the rolls of the church are 
crowded with the lists of its martyrs. It was entered through an 
external portico, supported by eighty-seven huge arches. Inside 
this portico there were rooms for booths of various kinds and 
stairways leading to the different portions of the amphitheater, 
known as the Podium, Praecinctiones and Menianum, corre- 




sponding to the box seats, parquette and diess circle in a mod- 
ern theater. It held eighty-seven thousand spectators. It was 
originally put together by fastening huge blocks of travertine 
together with iron clamps, but during the mediaeval ages it was 
turned into a kind of quarry, and the iron was nearly all taken 
out. The holes made into the stone for that purpose are 



THE ETERNAL CITY. IO9 

visible upon nearly every stone. Over the whole was thrown 
a huge sail-cloth to protect the multitude upon sunny days. 
Each seat in the building was numbered, and the ivory check 
for it must be held by the occupant. "The arena, which has 
been strewn with dry sand to absorb the blood that will soon 
flow, glitters with gold and silver dust, profusely scattered to 
increase the costliness of the display. The spectacle opens 
with a procession of those who will take part in the contests. 
Bands of Roman gladiators, groups of strangers, Parthians, 
Britons, Moors, Germans, each in his native costume and 
armed as he will fight, march to music around the arena. As 
they pass the throne the gladiators address the emperor, 
'Hail, Caesar; those about to die salute thee.' When the 
arena has been cleared, two trained athletes enter it and face 
each other. One is armed with a sword and shield. The 
other carries a light net, a dagger and a trident or three- 
pronged spear. The swordsman advances. The net-bearer 
draws back, turns and flies. The swordsman pursues. Inch 
by inch the fugitive gains till clear of danger. Suddenly his 
strength .appears to fail. His pace slackens. The sword 
flashes over him. As it descends he leaps aside and the 
weapon cuts the air. Before the swordsman can recover for a 
second stroke the fatal net twinkles over him. A dextrous 
jerk throws him to the ground. He is helplessly entangled. 
The foot of the vetiarius is upon him, the trident pressed to 
his breast. The victor glances upward at the great ' cloud of 
witnesses ' which compasses him about. If handkerchiefs are 
waved he must spare; if thumbs are turned he must slay. 
Thousands of women are watching. Among the one hundred 
thousand spectators not one lifts a finger to spare his life. 
Shouts of applause, clapping of hands, cries of ' Kill ! Kill ! 
Kill ! ' salute the victor as he thrusts his triple spear again and 
again into the quivering flesh. The single combats are suc- 
ceeded by contests between bands of gladiators. The trained 
athletes of Rome are matched now against each other, now 
against the foreign warriors, fighting according to the habits 
of their respective nations. Some are on foot, some on horse- 
back, some in chariots. If any lag they are driven forward by 



no AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

attendants armed with whips and bars of heated iron. Dur- 
ing the interludes boys dressed as Mercuries, and Ganymedes, 
and girls as nymphs and dryads, bear about wine and ices and 
roasted fowls — with the compliments of the emperor — to re- 
gale the spectators, who chat, and gossip and make love. A 
Roman poet declares that the amphitheater was the chief 
place for match-making in Roman society. The arena is 
cleared again, but the people remain seated. Suddenly the 
vast floor appears as if shaken by an earthquake. It sinks 
here, it bulges there, it yawns yonder. One knows not how ; 
no theater in existence to-day could do the same. A lake ap- 
pears in the center. Elephants are trumpeting upon its brink. 
Rocks and trees rise out of the ground. Lions, panthers, 
Libyan tigers are gliding, crouching, leaping, roaring among 
them. Bands of men, armed with spears and swords and 
bows advance to fight them." 

The above quotation, from "Ancient Cities," will serve to 
show in a better manner than we can describe the cruel uses 
to which this great building was put in the early days of its 
history. It is a remarkable proof of the triumph of Chris- 
tianity over heathendom, that this building is now consecrated 
to the memory of the Christian martyrs who perished within it. 
Recent excavations have brought to light the original arena, 
twenty-one feet below the present one. The corridors leading 
to the great menagerie, where the wild beasts were kept, are 
also laid bare. The sockets of the gates which penned up the 
animals are also visible, as well as the great drain which car- 
ried off the water which flooded the amphitheater for naval 
engagements. Between the Coliseum and the Arch of Con- 
stantine are the ruins of a fountain named the Meta Sudans, 
because the water trickled through the openings like perspira- 
tion. At this fountain the victorious gladiators formerly 
cleansed themselves from the blood of their wounds. 



THE APPIAN WAY. 

The remarkable highway bearing the above title is one of 
the many remains of Roman greatness. The Romans were 
far-sighted in regard to roads and water supplies. They tun- 
neled the mountains, bridged the chasms, and spanned the 
valleys with their aqueducts and highways in such a manner 
that, after nearly twenty centuries, the modern traveller is as- 
tonished at the magnitude of their ruins. The Appian Way 
derives its name from its projector, Appius Claudius, and was 
the most celebrated of all Roman roads, and is to-day called 
the " Queen of Roads." 

It extended from Rome to Capua Beneventum and Brun- 
disium — or, as we should say, in Modern Italian, from Rome 
to Brindisi — the heel of the Italian boot — several hundred 
rniles to the southeast. It was built in a very expensive man- 
ner, consisting of large blocks of stone, laid wath such regu- 
larity upon a substruction of Roman cement as to make it 
appear a solid stone highway. This Appius was a descendant 
of the notorious Appius Claudius, of Rome, who, when a 
decemvir, seeing one day a beautiful Roman maiden named 
Virginia, a daughter of Virginius the plebeian, going to school, 
and becoming enamored of her charms, determined to gain 
possession of her. To accomplish this, he caused one of his 
clients to seize upon her as his slave, and bring her before him. 
The trial took place in the Forum, and the foregone decision 
was rendered. The broken hearted father repaired to a meat- 
stall in the market near by, and, securing a knife and concealing 
it, returned to bid his daughter farewell. He bade her an 
affectionate farewell, and then struck her dead. Being an hon- 
orable plebeian, he appealed to the army, and, waving the 
bloody knife, he recited the story of his wrong in such a way 
as to inflame the military into a frenzied mutiny. It marched 



112 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



upon the city, and took a portion of it. Appius Claudius, and 
Oppius, his abettor, were captured and imprisoned, and sought 
relief from further indignation by suicide. This road was re^ 




iHE UH.AU viKGiNiA. — Drawn by H. Vogel. 

opened in 1850, as far as the eleventh milestone, by Pius IX., 
who, if he had done nothing more for the world during his 
long pontifical reign, would, by this act, have rendered it fam- 
ous. The original stones are yet in place in a great part of the 
way, and it is highly probable that our feet pressed the same 
stones as did those of the apostle Paul on his journey to Rome. 
We left the city by the Porta Capena, through which Paul 



THE APPIAN WAY. II3 

entered it. Shortly after passing the brook Almo, we 
came to the tomb of the Scipios, where that distinguished 
family found their resting-place. About half a mile farther 
out we came to the Colombaria of Caesar's Household, in an 
almost perfect state of preservation. The word Colombaria is 
from Colomba, a pigeon. It contains a number of small re- 
ceptacles (or pigeon holes), where the ashes of the cremated 
servants were deposited. On one of these receptacles was 
carved "Tryphenae Valeria and Valerus Futianus, to the 
memory of the mother Tryphencs." Upon another was 
" Varia Tryphosa, patron, and M. Eppius Clemens erected 
this to his well-beloved wife, Tryphosa, who lived thirty 
years." 

The date of these is between Julius Caesar and Nero. 
Nowhere else are these names to be found in Roman 
ruins. 

As I stood by these names I remembered the words of 
Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, "Salute Tryphena and Try- 
phosa, who labour in the Lord." Again he says to the Philip- 
pians, " My bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in 
all other places. " "All the saints salute thee, chiefly those 
that are of Ccssar' s household.'' One hundred years ago the 
infidel might have arraigned Paul for coining names, and have 
called in vain for proofs that such names were Roman. But 
to-day we would only have to take him to the resting-place of 
Caesar's servants to find them. 

One mile from Porta Capena we came to the arch of Drusus, 
brother of Tiberius, and father of Germanicus. It was a tri- 
umphal arch erected to his honor by the Roman Senate. He 
married Antonia, a daughter of Mark Antony. He conquered 
the Germans, and extended the Roman empire to the German 
ocean and river Elbe. For this he and his posterity were 
called by the surname of Germanicus, and this arch given to 
him. It is fast crumbling to ruin, and looked almost unsafe as 
we passed under it. Outside the gate which this arch makes, 
is the site of the Temple and Field of Mars, where the victori- 
ous generals waited till bidden by an official decree to 
make their triumphal entry into Rome. 



114 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



The sides of the road are now Hned with tombs, as the 
Romans, having no cemeteries, used the roadsides for this pur- 
pose. Many of them are still in a good state of preservation, 
while others are mere rubbish heaps. That many eminent 
Romans were buried here, every school-boy that has read 
Cicero's Tusculum Disputations will bear witness. 

In one place he says, "When you go out of the Porta 
Capena, and see the tombs of Catalinus, the Scipios, the Ser- 
vili, and the Meteli, can you consider their inmates unhappy?" 
Still farther on, we came to a small church formerly called the 
Domine Quo Vadis — "Master, whither goest thou?" The 
legend runs that Peter, on fleeing the city to escape persecu- 
tion, met the Lord, and made the above inquiry. In receiving 
the reply, " I go yonder to be crucified again," he was so over- 




OUTSIDE ENTRANCE TO CATACOMBS. 



whelmed with mortification that he immediately returned to 
the city, and martyrdom. The monks also show you the im- 
pression of the Saviour's footsteps in the rock, which is to 
stamp the impression on the believing mind that the Saviour 
had to take a firm stand with his vacillating and backsliding 
follower. 

From the church it is only a short distance to the Cata- 
combs of St. Calixtus and St. Sebastian. The word catacombs 
is composed of the Greek Kata, down, and Kumbos, a hollow. 



THE APPIAN WAY. II5 

They are great subterranean vaults underneath the city. Ex- 
tending in a labyrinthine maze over six hundred miles, as 
generally estimated. There has been a great deal of specula- 
tion as to their origin. Some claim they were made simply to 
obtain sand for the city ; others, for pagan burials previous to 
the introduction of cremation ; still others ascribe them to the 
old Etrurians, twelve hundred years b. c. I think it, however, 
most probable they are of Hebrew origin. We know that 
many of the Jews graced Pompey's triumph, after the Syrian 
conquest ; and they were plentiful in Rome in the days of Paul. 
They were then so aggressive that they made many converts 
to the faith of Israel, and, in the language of Seneca, "The 
conquered gave laws to the conqueror." They were always 
opposed to cremation, and observed the custom of burying 
their dead. Nearly every rocky hillside in Palestine and 
Syria is a net-work of excavated rock tomb-chambers ; and 
the same is true wherever a Jewish settlement was made. 
It is not unreasonable that they should seek to perpetuate 
their life-long custom of burial at Rome. Would it not 
also be natural to the Christians, having the same ven- 
eration for the body, to adopt this custom from their former 
religion ? 

Christians used them also as places of worship, and in times 
of great peril lived there. The old Roman respect for property 
was very great. They were originators of the principle that 
" Every man's house is his castle," While the emperors could 
persecute with an almost unlimited power, they could not invade 
private property. Diocletian once violated this principle, but 
the people would not sustain him in it. Now, the Christians 
of ancient Rome were nearly all of the higher classes. Many of 
these had houses above the entrances to the catacombs, and it 
was, therefore, an easy matter for the Christians to hide in 
them. 

There were, of course, many ghastly sights visible. Bones 
and skulls lay around in profusion, and occasionally we would 
see some embalmed Christian. Once or twice we came upon 
some hollow receptacle which was still red upon the inside. 



ii6 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



This marked the resting-place of a martyr, and the red was the 
stain of the blood. Many designs, like the fish, cross, an- 
chor, good shepherd, etc., 
adorned the walls. Many 
sweet sentences of love 
and hope were also cut 
into the marble slabs, a 
few of which we copy. 
On one stone we find the 
sweet words of a Christian 
parent : ' ' Lawrence, to 
his sweet son Severus, the 
well deserving, borne away 
by the angels on the sev- 
enth before the Ides of 
January." Then comes a 
broken stone, without the 
name ; but what is left 
tells the story of Christian 
faith: "The Lord gave, 
and the Lord hath taken 
away ; blessed be the name 
of the Lord." They seemed 
to turn to God in all their 
troubles, just as does the true Christian to-day. **In God," 
"In Christ," "In Peace," are common mottoes. " Vidalio in 
the peace of Christ," " Victorina sleeps," " Gemella sleeps in 
peace," " Aretusa in God." 

Several martyr tombs are found. On one are the words, 
"In the time of the Emperor Adrian, Marius, a young mili- 
tary officer, who had lived long enough when with his blood 
he gave up his life for Christ." Then follows, "The well- 
deserving set up this in tears and in fear." How strikingly 
does this call to mind the first martyr of the church ! Crushed 
by the stones of his countrymen, his mangled body lay on the 
northern slope of the Kidron valley, a shapeless mass. But 
" devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great 
lamentation over him." On one side is the monogram of 




DESCENT TO CATACOMBS. 



THE APPIAN WAY. 



117 



Christ, and on the other is the palm of victory. He died 
about A. D. 130. Thirty years later we find " Alexander dead 
is not, but lives above the stars, and his body rests in this 
tomb. He ended his life under the Emperor Antonine." 
Yonder is a rude stone, with great sprawling letters. It reads, 
" Lannus, Christ's faithful martyr, rests here. He suffered 
under Diocletian." Another, who suffered under Julian the 
Apostate, has the following Epitaph : Here lies Gordianus, 
deputy of Gaul, who was executed for the faith, with all his 
family ; they rest in peace. Theophila, a handmaid, set up 
this." 




MARTYR GRAVES. 



We observed many records of the family relation among 
them, such as the one of Bishop Leo's tomb, when he says, 
"My wife made me this tomb." "The place of Basil the 
presbyter, and his Felicitas. " ' ' The once happy daughter of the 
presbyter Gabinus, here lies Susannah, joined with her father 
in peace." " Petronica, a deacon's wife, the type of modesty." 

I have not space to treat further of the catacombs, ex- 
cept to draw some conclusions : 



Il8 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

1. We see from the above that they have been used for three 
different purposes, viz.: Places of burial, places of worship 
and places of refuge. 

2. Nothing in the Catacombs sustains the practice of the 
worship of images. No visible representations of God or 
Christ that are in any way intended as personal representa- 
tions. Go into any of the churches above the Catacombs and 
you will find them filled with images of the world's Re- 
deemer, and even in some places images of the uncreated God. 
It is wonderful that no writer of the New Testament ever 
drew a pen-picture of the Saviour. 

In the four gospels we have a wonderfully accurate history 
of the Saviour, but no mention of his height, weight, com- 
plexion, the color of his eyes or hair. 

Such is the proneness of our poor human nature to wor- 
ship the outward and visible that God's hand has left us noth- 
ing to grasp at in this way, and the mediator of the New Cove- 
nant has been as carefully concealed — in his person — from 
his followers as was the body of Israel's lawgiver ; and doubt- 
less for a similar reason." 

We find no crucifixes or paintings of Christ on the cross; 
nor of Christ bearing the cross — not one ; nor do we find the 
image of the Virgin Mary. The early church had not grown 
so feeble in the faith as to need these outward symbols to 
direct them to the Lamb of God. 

3. There are, moreover, no evidences of pope nor dio- 
cesan bishop nor infant baptism till after the introduction of 
these into the church, centuries after Christianity started. In 
the Catacombs of San Ponziano there is a baptistery, four feet 
six inches long, by three and one-half feet wide and three and 
one-half feet deep. This was used for immersion between the 
first and fourth centuries. It is still filled with water. 

"Taking, then, the church in the Catacombs as to its 
spirit, doctrines, ministry and rites, what do we see? A spirit 
glowing with faith, hope and charity, with domestic affection, 
and sympathies of universal brotherhood; a doctrine wherein 
is no place for purgatorial torments, but a blooming hope of 
bliss beyond the tomb ; no appeal to the mediation of dead 







W 

IiIl ISk 

ROMVN MOTHIK ThMllIM HLk tHI O TO KISS M^Ik OI CHRIST 
ON HW I \ 1 IlER^ lOML 



Page 119. 



THE APPIAN WAY. 121 

men, but a happy trust in the sole mediation of Christ the 
Son of God; a ministry to which compulsory celibacy is 
unknown ; and a ritual unpracticed in gorgeous display, or in 
copies of heathen ceremonial. As that church comes forth 
from her tomb to meet us in her grave-clothes, yet, still living, 
we gaze on her." 

While gazing we behold a primitive faith, practices and 
symbols. Then take a look at the wretched apostasy that 
stands above the Catacombs and centers around St. Peter's. 
With its gorgeous imagery, grand altars that have taken the 
place of the primitive communion table, burning incense, 
lighted candles, attired priesthood, and we ask ourselves, can 
there be any concord between the simplicity which is in Christ 
and the subtilty of men? The Church of the Catacombs is a 
grand witness to primitive Christianity. She was a partaker of 
"the like precious faith with us." Her God is our God; her 
Lord is our Lord ; her faith our faith ; her hope our hope ; her 
spirit our spirit. 

God be praised that the Catacombs of Rome should col- 
lect, the Church of Rome should preserve, an ever living pro- 
test against all the apostasies from the martyr church, and the 
voice of that church "being dead yet speaketh " to all who 
will listen to the story of the truth, beauty, wisdom and power 
of the simple gospel of Christ. 

There is just one other thought about it that I desire to 
express before leaving it. On none of the beautiful tombs 
and mausoleums of the pagans could one word of hope be 
found. On the contrary, everything seemed to be arranged to 
make the living forget the awful fate of their dead. At the 
tomb of Romulus, his father Maxentius had a large circus 
built, where he could be amused by races and games when he 
visited the grave of his boy. On the other hand the dark abode 
of the Catacombs is still luminous with the hopes and fervent 
aspirations of God's faithful people. While paganism had no 
cure for sorrow but oblivion; "Earth had no sorrow that 
heaven could not heal" to the child of God — then, as now. 

At the third milestone we passed the tomb of Caecilia 
Metella, wife of Scylla, the dictator, which was standing in 



122 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



Paul's day and was seen by him, as by ourselves. At the 
fourth milestone we came to the Villa of Seneca, one of 
Rome's greatest philosophers and thinkers. It was here that 
Seneca was murdered. We have no authority for it, but I 
fancy Paul must have rested here awhile and had a conversa- 




THE APPIAN WAY. — TOMB OF C/ECILIA METELLA. 



tion with this profound man. Paul was evidently acquainted 
with the great minds of Rome, and moreover he had once been 
brought before Seneca'r brother, GalHo. He was also accom- 
panied by Roman brethren, who were evidently familiar with 
Seneca's great worth. 

Near the fifth milestone are the Tombs of the Curiatii. 
Livy gave such a description of these tombs in his day, that 
we are able yet to identify them as also those of the two Horatii, 
who fell in the famious tri-duel between the Roman and Alban 
forces. 



THE APPIAN WAY. 



123 



Just as they were about to meet in the hour of battle, 
which, whomever it might leave victorious, would so weaken 
both Roman and Alban forces as to make them an easy prey 
to their mutual enemy, the Etruscans, it was decided that the 
wager of battle should be decided by a tri-duel between three 
Alban brothers, the Curiatii, and three Roman, the Horatii. 




At the beginning, the Albans seemed to triumph, and two of 
the Horatii were killed. The third feigned flight, and having 
thus caused the Curiatii to become separated, fell upon them 
one by one, and easily destroyed them. The divided people 
of God to day may draw a grand lesson for Christian union 



124 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



from this simple story! The sad sequel, however, to this 
story, takes away from its interest. A sister of the Horatii 
was in love with one of the slain Albans, and on the victorious 



r^ 




return of her brother upbraided him with murder. Her un- 
patriotic and unsisterly feeling so enraged him, that he slew her ; 
and his father appeared to justify the brother's course, Roman 
mothers and sisters were expected to lay all personal feelings 



THE APPIAN WAY. 



125 



upon the altar of patriotism. The men of Rome were gener- 
ally brave because of the instructions of their mothers. A 
notable example of this is to be found in "The Mother of the 
Gracchi," as she had inscribed upon her statue, the daughter 
of Scipio Africanus. She was left a widow, and began to 
devote herself to the training of her sons, Tiberius and Clau- 




SCENE IN THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA. 



dius. When she was offered marriage by the King of Egypt, 
she refused it, that she might train her sons. On one occa- 
sion she was shown a beautiful casket of gems by a lady 
friend, and, calling her two sons to her, replied, ' ' These are 
my jewels." Such a mother would naturally produce patriotic 
sons. Tiberius became the great friend of the common peo- 
ple — so much so that, arousing the fierce antagonism of the 
oligarchic party, he was by them assassinated. He was the 
grandson of Hannibal's conqueror, the son-in-law of Appius 
Claudius, who constructed the Appian Way, and the brother- 
in-law of the destroyer of Carthage. 

At the eighth milestone are the ruins of the temple of Her- 
cules, which Caesar built in honor of himself, having assumed 
the form of Hercules. At the ninth milestone we halted and 



126 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



felt we were upon a sacred spot, viz. , Tres Taberna:, or Three 
Taverns. 

While the ruins themselves are uninteresting, they mark 
the spot where Paul was met by certain brethren who went 
out from Rome to meet him ; certain other brethren went an- 
other day's journey, and met him at Appii Forum, thirty 
miles farther on the road to Puteoli. We here left the Appian 




i^ "; ii \^-^^^ 



CAMPAGNA COW-BOY 



Way, and returned by the new road to Rome. Many other 
interesting sites were observed, but we have cited only such 
as undoubtedly existed and met the gaze of Paul. 

The return brought us in direct contact with the campagna 
life of to-day. Every few hundred yards we would meet a 
wagon loaded down with the degenerate sons of the noble 
Romans of v/hom I have been writing, riding on a furious drive 
homeward. It would be driven by a half-drunken man, who 
seemed to take delight in torturing his team, while the cart 
would be filled with dogs, cats, ^nd the "rest of the family," 



THE APPIAN WAY. 12/ 

jostled about in loving confusion. They generally took wine 
to market, and brought away the rough articles of sustenance 
peculiar to the Italian peasant. 

The Campagna is owned largely by a few rich Roman fami- 
lies, Vv'ho use it for grazing purposes. The large herds of 
long-horned cattle, similar to our Texan stock, were at- 
tended by some brigandish looking herdsmen, dressed in sheep 
skin with the wool on, and forcibly reminding us of the wolf 
in sheep's clothing, while at intervals you would see a sort of 
chief herdsman mounted on horseback, and bearing some re- 
semblance to a Western " cow-boy," but without the dash and 
daring- of his American brother. 








PAPAL ROME. 



The castle of San Angelo stands just across the Tiber frohi 
the main city, on the way to St. Peter's. 

The bridge across the Tiber at this point was erected by 
the Emperor Hadrian, a. d. 136, and is the only one of the 
Tiber's bridges that dates back to the Pagan emperors. At 
the end nearest to the city, stand two colossal statues, one, 
St. Peter, holding the keys, the other, St. Paul, holding a sword. 
The bridge leads directly to the above named castle, built as a 
mausoleum for Hadrian and his successors. It is cylindrical 
in shape, about 100 feet in diameter and half that higl\. It was 
form.erly surmounted by a large statue of the Emperor, but 
that was torn down by the Goths, and only the colossal head 
of it is preserved in the Vatican Museum. It is now sur- 
mounted by the figure of an angel sheathing a sword. At the 
end of the sixth century a plague was desolating Rome, and 
Gregory the Great was conducting a penitential procession to 
pray for its cessation. As they crossed the bridge he professed 
to see an angel sheathing a sword, which was interpreted as a 
token that God's wrath was satisfied. Soon after, the plague 
ceased, and hence this commemorative figure. The castle was 



PAPAL ROME. 



131 



for years the fortress of the popes, and was the last place to 
yield to the Italian forces. A hidden passage still connects it 
with the Vatican, It formerly held 
the ashes of Hadrian, Faustina, An- 
toninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Corn- 
modus. Septimus Severus, and Cara- 
calla. In the sacking of the city by 
Alaric, early in the fifth century, 
everything of value was carried away, 
and even the royal dust it held was 
dispersed and doubtless mingles with 
the ooze and slime of the Tiber. 
Upon the downfall of the Napoleonic 
regime, the French officer who had 
command of this fortress was sum- 
moned to surrender. He replied in 
French bravado, that he would do so 
when the angel upon the building 
would sheathe his sword. The French- 
man was not there when we visited it, 
but the angel was, and his sword is 
still unsheathed. About half a mile 
west of the castle is St. Peter's. To 
one who has seen it, the best possible written description is but a 
meagre outline of its massive grandeur. In front of the build- 
ing is an elliptical court surrounded by a colonnade. This col- 
onnade contains 284 columns and 84 buttresses. On the roof 
are 162 marble statues of saints, done in the highest style of 
art. In the center is an Egyptian obelisk brought from Heliop- 
olis. which once adorned Nero's circus, and more than probably 
witnessed the death of Paul. It was placed in its present posi- 
tion by Pope Sixtus V. The engineer forgot to make allow- 
ance for the great strain on the ropes, and it seemed for a 
moment that the "raising" would be a failure. No one was 
allowed to speak, under penalty of death. When all seemed 
to fail, a sailor in the crowd cried out, " Water on the ropes." 
The advice was taken, with success. Though he had violated 
the letter, he had kept the spirit of the law, and was acquitted 




HADRIAN. 



132 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

with emoluments. The obelisk stands as an eloquent witness 
of the sufferings of the early martyrs and the triumph of Chris- 
tianity. It bears the inscription, "Christ is triumphant! 
Christ reigns ! Christ is Emperor ! Christ has paid all our 
debts!" 

The church has been greatly criticised by some archi- 
tects, but I must confess that never had I seen anything to 
compare with it in beauty. After seeing it, everything around 
Rome seemed to become dwarfed in size. Its interior decora- 
tions are superior to its exterior. One of the saddest thoughts 
about it is that it is no longer useful. We attended the first 
Mass in Lent on Sunday morning. While priests and digni- 
taries were there in superabundance, the people were not there. 
Only a few hundred were to be seen in all the magnificent 
chapel and before the solemn altars of the imposing structure. 
Those that were present were of the lowest classes. Romanism 
seems to have lost its power over the intelligent masses. It 
must either do as the English church is doing — adapt itself 
to the times — or it will soon be entirely relegated to the past. 
Those with whom I talked were not irreligious — but when you 
mentioned the name of the Pope you were almost universally 
met by '^ Papa ne buono " (the Pope no good). I heartily re- 
joice that the dark cloud that has for so many centuries cast 
its chilling shadow over this fair land is about to strike its tents 
and flee from the advancing light. It has already too long 
paralyzed the forces of this great land. The day of her re- 
demption draweth nigh. She is renewing her youth, and future 
historians may record that Italy is again the center of the 
world's civilization. That St. Peter's must be either abandoned 
to ruin or put to some useful purpose is evident when we con- 
sider that it now costs about fifty thousand dollars per annum 
to keep it in repair, which amount the rapidly decreasing treas- 
ury of the Pope cannot long afford. It is said that one hundred 
families dwell upon its roof 

Near the door as you enter, there is a circular mosaic in the 
floor, on which it is claimed the emperors of Rome were 
crowned. Just to the right as you enter the rotunda is a com- 
posite statue, the body of which is that of old Jupiter Tonans, 



PAPAL ROME. 



133 



from Capitoline Hill, surmounted by a cast of St. Peter's head. 
This is the one whose toe is kissed by the faithful, and as an 
evidence that they are faithful the immense bronze toe has been 
half kissed aivay. Immediately under the dome is a gorgeous 
canopy supported by massive, tortuous, bronze pillars one and 
one-half feet in diameter at the base and about thirty feet high, 
that were taken from the Pantheon. Immediately under this 
are the resting places (?) of Paul and Peter. At the extreme 
west is an immense chair about twelve feet high, inside of which 
is said to be the original chair used by Peter when pope at Rome. 




POPE LEO XTII, 



In the immediate neighborhood of St. Peter's is the Vat- 
ican — the dwelling place, library and museum of the Popes. 
The ground upon which stands the papal headquarters is large 
enough to place the city of Cincinnati upon. 

The present occupant of the papal chair is a bright, intelli- 
gent-looking man, with a decided appearance of peace-with-all 



134 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



mankind that is in strange contrast with his pretended feeling 
of humiliation and his threat of leaving Rorne unless treated 
with more courtesy by the Italian politicians. We suspect 
that the threat will have its effect, for the removal of the papal 
headquarters from Rome would strike a blow at the city from 
a commercial standpoint, alone, that would not be surpassed 
by the removal of the national capital. 

The popes have had it pretty hard for the last hundred years 
in their desperate but futile struggle against the spirit of political 
freedom that has been constantly increasing since the occupa- 
tion of Rome by Napoleon Bonaparte. Pius VI. was then 
reigning with regal splendor and dispensing favors with moie 

than royal munificence. Naturally 
vain, weak and irresolute, he was no 
match for the then haughty and vio- 
lent Directory of the French. They 
proclaimed the Republic in Rome 
and imprisoned Pius. From Rome 
he was conveyed to Florence, 
thence via Grenoble to Valence, 
being borne over the mountains in 
a litter and saved from exposure by 
the furs of his guards. He died 
shortly afterwards. His successors, 
Pius VII., Gregory XVI. and Pius 
IX., all died protesting against their 

PIUS VI. r t, t, 

treatment by the civil powers, and 
the conflict will go on most probably with diminishing vigor 
till popes are things of the past. 

The Vatican is entered upon the right, at the end of the 
colonnade of the Piazza of St. Peter's. Swiss guards keep watch 
at the entrance, after passing whom, we ascended a superb stair- 
way called Scala Regia, and turning to the right ascended an- 
other, from which we were led into the Sistine Chapel, a large 
hall, 133 feet long by 45 feet wide. The frescoing is largely by 
Michael Angelo, and makes it one of the world's wonders in art. 
The end wall is fully taken up with The Last Judgment. It oc- 
cupies about 2,400 square feet, and impresses the traveller of to- 




PAPAL ROME. 



137 



day with an overpowering sense of the religious ideas of Angelo's 
time. The extreme nudity of many of the figures, however, 
created an unfavorable impression upon my mind that all the 
merits of the picture could not overcome. It was painted in the 
stern gloom of the painter's advancing age, and contrasts quite 
unfavorably with the light, airy, angelic pictures of his early life. 
The flat part of the ceiling is adorned with pictures of Bible 
history, from the beginning of Creation till after the Flood. 

From the Sistine Chapel we passed into the Stanze of 
Raphael, where, if you are not so much impressed by the 
power of the artist, you are relieved by the gentle touch of as 
great a painter. While Angelo seemed to grow rugged as he grew 
older, Raphael became softened and_refined with experience. 

But it is in the Library that the student feels more at 
home, after getting somewhat dver his astonishment at see- 
ing no long rows of books with their printed titles, usually 
found in American libraries. The number of printed books is 
not very large — say twenty-five thousand — but the collection 
of manuscripts is the largest in Europe. These are not open 
to the general public, and in fact all its treasures are shut up 
in wood cabinets. 

Leaving the Vatican, we proceeded to the Church of St. 
Andrea del Valle, built upon the site of Pompey's Theater, 
where Csesar was stabbed. From there we went to St. Paul's, 
passing on the way the Tomb of Caius Cestius. It is in the 
form of a pyramid, and the only one of its kind in Rome. It 
is ninety feet square at the base and one hundred and fourteen 
feet high. It dates back to the time of Augustus, and is now 
partly within and partly without the city wall. Near this tomb 
is the Protestant cemetery, where repose the ashes of many 
Americans and Englishmen. 

Outside the city wall is the traditional spot of the 
parting of Peter and Paul. The spot is marked by a small 
chapel, whose front bears a bas-relief representing the partmg. 
St. Paul's is thought by many to be superior to St. Peter's. 

The old church was burned down the night preceding the 
death of Pius VII., in 1823 a. d., but has been rebuilt upon 
the original foundations. It contains a portrait of each of the 



138 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

popes, from Peter down, and still there are places left for a 
number more. A little further on is a small church built upon 
anotlier of the spots where the Apostle Paul is said to have 
suffered martyrdom. In the church are three fountains, said 
to have burst from the ground where the Apostle's head 
struck and rebounded three times, after being stricken from 
his body. From St. Paul's we proceeded to St. Clement's 
Church, beneath which is the house of that Saint. In the 
crypt is a picture of St. Cyril baptizing a candidate, which 
tells the story of immersion as plainly as it can be told. As 
I gazed upon the picture the words of St. Cyril came to my 
mind. Speaking of baptism, he says: "The body is dipped 
in water. " 

We next visited San Giovanni de Lateran (St. John of 
I^ateran), where the popes are crowned, and which was one of 
the original five churches that disputed for the primacy. The 
first act of the pope is to take possession of this property. 
Near it stands the baptistery in which Constantine was bap- 
tized, while only a short distance away is the Scala Santa, a 
flight of twenty-eight marble steps, which formerly adorned 
the house of Pilate at Jerusalem, on which, it is claimed, 
our Saviour trod. They were brought from Jerusalem a. d. 
326, by the Empress Helena, the mother of Constantine.- 
They nmst be ascended only on the knees, and the long flight 
was crowded with people who stopped upon each step to utter a 
prayer. At the top is a counter surrounded by a grating 
through which the coins are deposited, which seems to be the 
chief end of the whole proceeding. It is said that Martin 
Luther had proceeded half-way up the stairs, when, after a se- 
vere struggle, he rose and shouted out what has since been the 
war-cry of Protestantism, "The just shall live by faith," and 
shortly after quitted Rome forever. 

Our next stopping-place was the Church of the Holy Cross 
of Jerusalem. This contains the cross of Christ (original) 
brought from Jerusalem by Helena. That it is the true cross 
the faithful must not doubt ; for did not Helena go to Jerusa- 
lem to get it? And when she could not find it on top of the 
ground, did she not dig for it ? And when she found it (there 




A MADONNA liY KAl'HAEL. 



Page 139. 



PAPAL ROME. 



141 



were three of them), did she not test which it was, by bringing 
sick people to touch all three ; and only one of them could 
miraculously heal ? After this array of testimony, if there still 
be a sinful skeptic to smile, I will defy him to prove that it is 
not the true cross, and there "rest the case." In this same 
church is a chapel dedicated to St. Helena, and into which no 
woman is allowed to enter. I could find no one that could 
give me a reason for this strange prohibition, and so dismissed 
the matter with the thought that it must be for " a woman's 
reason." 

The next place we visited was the Church of Santa Puden- 
tiana. Hitherto I have been disposed to rather make light of 
the traditional claims of the Romish church, but I must confess 
to a feeling of great awe as I entered the crypt of this venerable 
building. I have taken considerable time to investigate the 
authorities, and I believe we can go reliably further back to- 
wards the apostles' time here than at any other spot in Rome. 
The claim of the church is that Rufus Pudens was a half 
brother to Paul. Paul says himself that he had kinsmen at 
Rome. From Rome he writes to Timothy that " Eubulus 
greets thee and Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the 
brethren." Profane tradition informs us that the house of 
Pudens was the home of all Christians. In this house Pudens 
founded an oratory or chapel of which Hernias was pastor. 
This oratory is below the present church. Pudens had two 
sons, Novatus and Timothy ; and two daughters, Pudentiana 
and Praxedes. Hermas Pastor tells us : " The daughters of 
Pudens desired to have a baptistery in their house, and Pius 
(the bishop) drew the plans of the foundation. Their Chris- 
tian slaves were declared free in the oratory founded by Pu- 
dens, and ninety-six neophytes were baptized at Easter. 
Henceforth constant services were held in said oratory, the 
bishop Pius frequently visiting them. When Pudentiana went 
to God, we concealed her body twenty-eight days in the ora- 
tory, and then buried her near her father Pudens, in the tomb 
of Priscilla. After eleven months Novatus died, and left his 
goods to Praxedes, and she begged Pius to erect a church in 
the baths of Novatus, which were no longer used, and where 



142 an' historical pilgrimage. 

there was a large and spacious hall. The bishop made the 
dedication in the name of the blessed virgin Pudentiana," 
(Letters of Hermas.) The account of the building of the 
church is confirmed by Bishop Damasus. He says: "Pius 
made a church in the Thermae of Novatus and dedicated it in 
honor of his sister Pudentiana." 

Recent archseological investigations confirm the above 
statements, and the most eminent archaeologists agree that 
this is the ancient spot where stood the house and oratory and 
church. In the oratory we found a mosaic pavement of a 
baptistery where the ninety-six freedmen were baptized. 
We also visited the ancient building shown us as Paul's " hired 
house," and one near it where the Catholics claim that Paul 
kept a school. But time would fail me to tell of the Mamertine 
prison where Paul was confined, and the many other interest- 
ing places about Rome. 



FROM ROME TO NAPLES. 

The journey from Rome to Naples occupies only six hours 
by fast train, yet one can hardly conceive the difference in cli- 
mate between the two cities, Rome partaking of all the char- 
acteristics of the temperate zone while Naples is semi-tropical. 
Shortly after leaving Rome the train stops at Cecchina station 
for Albano only five miles distant. Then comes Velletri, an 
ancient Volscian city and supposed birthplace of Augustus. 
After this comes Anagni, where the popes resided in the mid- 
dle ages and where Pope Boniface was imprisoned. At 
Ceprano we get a good dinner which always marks a city to 
the traveler. After leaving Ceprano the train enters a broad 
plain. On the hills to the left are shown some ruins of the 
castle that was the birthplace of St. Thomas Aquinas. After 
passing Monte Casino, where the monks are noted for their cul- 
ture and their kindness to all, and consequently draw large crowds 
of the peasantry to their services, we came to Modern Capua. 
It is a city of about ten thousand people, built upon the site 
of the ancient Casilinum, Here is where the brave -old Car- 
thaginian, when forced to retreat, and his enemies thinking 
they had all the passes guarded and his retreat cut off, resorted 
to the famous stratagem of tying bundles of fagots to the horns 
of cattle and driving them into the hill-tops at night — de- 
ceived the enemy as to his course, and while they were follow- 
ing the false lights retired in safety to Apulia. His opponent 
in this campaign- was Fabius Ma'ximus, who was once sent 
on an embassy to Carthage to demand the recall and surrender 
of Hannibal as a hostage that no m.ore aggression should be 
made in Spain. The Carthaginians were slow to do this, and 
at a critical moment Fabius gathered up the folds of his cloak, 
and, addressing his enemies, said: "Men of Carthage, here 
in this toga I carry peace and war; which do you choose?" 



144 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



" Which ever you choose!" was the brave and manly reply. 
Throwing out the gathered folds of his toga, Fabius replied, 




"Then we pour out war upon you." The die was cast for 
war, and war followed, till Carthage was overthrown, Hannibal 
hunted to his death, and Rome the undisputed mistress of all. 



FROM ROME TO NAPLES. 



HS 



We reached Naples after dark, and as we alighted from the 
cars almost the first sight that greeted us was the crown of 
light that gathered over Vesuvius and lighted it up in a gloomy 
grandeur that is never forgotten by him who has once beheld 




it. But a man who has made a long, tedious railroad ride will 
weary of the most sublime scenes at the announcement of a 
good fable (Thote dinner, and we soon lost all sight of Vesu- 
vius amid the glare of the gas-light in the dining-room of the 



146 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

Grand-hotel-de-Nobile, a long name, but one of which it 
proved itself in every way worthy. 

Naples is much larger than Rome, though the present gov- 
ernment of Italy is doing so much for the latter that it will 
soon become the metropolis, as it is now the capital of con- 
federated Italy. Naples is a city of extremes. In some re- 
spects the grandest, proudest and most glorious of cities ; in 
others, the meanest, most abject and filthy of all the places I 
have ever seen. Seen from the summit of Vesuvius, she sits 
a marble queen upon a marble throne, while her beautiful bay 
has no peer in the world. 

But go down along her docks, mingle with her ragged, 
greasy, gabby, ignorant and contented populace and she be- 
comes a city of beggars. The old saying used to be "See 
Naples and die." Mark Twain, I believe, suggested "Smell 
Naples and die." I think, however, it would be a more sensi- 
ble course to See and Smell Naples and then get away without 
dying. At least that is what we did. It does not take a great 
while to do all three, and the ordinary traveler need not devote 
more than a week to it. 

Our party being extraordinary travelers, did it in four days. 
The first day was devoted to the museum. This is the finest 
in the world for antiquities, such as Pompeiian relics and Etrus- 
can vases. 

Nearly all the treasures of Pompeii have been placed here. 
Frescoes have been removed from the walls and without being 
broken transferred to the museum walls. One of the finest is 
the battle of Issus, between the forces of Darius and Alex- 
ander. It was found in the House of the Faun, identical with 
Bulwer's House of Arbaces, the Egyptian Wizard. 

. This most wonderful battle of ancient times has been told 
so graphically by Ridpath that we copy a portion of it. "The 
conflict was begun by Alexander. From the beginning it was 
seen that the Persians feared the long spears of the Macedon- 
ians ; but the cavalry of Darius fought with great bravery, as 
did also the Greek mercenaries in the right wing of the army. 

"Alexander himself, with the right and the left center, 
charged the Persian infantry in his front and routed them with 



FROM ROME TO NAPLES. 147 

great slaughter. The cavalry, seeng the defeat of the foot, 
also broke into flight, and the Greek auxiliaries were beaten 
down. The result was a complete and overwhelming victory 
for Alexander, who now grew confident he could take the 
Persian empire with a Macedonian phalanx. The losses of 
Darius in the battle of Issus have been placed as high as one 
hundred thousand men, while that of the Macedonians 
amounted to no more than nine hundred and fifty in killed and 




DARIUS — Enlarged from the fresco at Pompeii. 

wounded. To this disparity must be added the loss of the 
king's mother, wife and sister, who were captured by Alex- 
ander." 

This was the beginning of the downfall of Darius, which 
ended shortly after with the battle of Arbela, where Alexan- 
der found him upon the roadside dying from a wound inflicted 
by the Satrap Bessus of Bactria, and gave him a cup of water ; 
he died thanking his conqueror. 

Marble statuary, household articles, such as tongs, spoons, 
knives, seeds, bread, honey, are all here, after having lain cov- 
ered for nearly 1800 years. Agricultural and mechanical im- 



148 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

plements, such as rakes, spades, axes, adzes, planes, braces 
and bits, paints and brushes. Many of them are similar to 
the same implements used in Italy to-day. I saw men in the 
vineyards near Naples using tools made precisely after the 
pattern of those in the museum. Bro. Moore and I both be- 
ing Kentuckians, readily recognized the old "bull-tongue" 
plow. The Pompeiians were in all these respects fully up to 
the Italy of to-day. Many articles of ladies' wear are also 
preserved, such as laces, silks, hair-nets, scarfs and ribbons ; 
in short, almost everything that goes to make up a Western 
home can be found here in abundance. I am glad, however, 
to be able to say that many things found here do not go to 
make up our homes. 

In almost all that we call the fine arts there is shown a 
shocking lack of modesty and delicacy. The frescoes and 
statues in nearly all the houses were in very questionable taste, 
and by far the greater portion absolutely impure;. 

We have some highly "aesthetic " Christians now, who are 
great apologists for what is called the "nude in art." I think 
I can now see where it all comes from. In my judgment there 
is no more excuse for the nude in art than in 7iature. 

The whole thing arises from an unrenewed and corrupted 
nature. In delightful and pleasing contrast to the luxurious 
and licentious Pompeiians are the works of their ancestors, the 
Etruscans. In the museum at Naples I think it is safe to say 
there are many thousand specimens of their vases, and on no 
one did I see that which would shock a sensible person. 

Many writing implements have been found, but one of the 
greatest curiosities is a number of bronze pens, made similar 
to those in use to-day, and with which this writing is done. 
Inkstands of all makes and shapes, and some writing material, 
in the form of papyrus leaves, wax and wooden tablets 
Through the ingenuity of a priest — Antonio Piazza — many of 
these have been unrolled and read, and we can now read Phil- 
ostratus on "Pride," Epicurus on "Nature," Philodemus on 
"Music," Metrodorus on the "Senses," after they have been 
buried for nearly two millenniums. In July, 1875, a box was 
found in the house of Jucundus containing one hundred and 



FROM ROME TO NAPLES. 



151 



thirty tablets of wood. They were nearly four inches square, 
and were countersunk on the inner side and the cavities filled 
with a beeswax composition upon which letters were made 
with a pointed instrument. They consisted of bonds, con- 
tracts and receipts. They show the old gentleman to have 
been a money-lender, and his lowest rate of interest two per 
cent a month. One of the contracts reads as follows : I, Mar- 
cus Alleius Campus, on the eighth kallends of July, Quintus 
Volusias Salurminas being consuls, acknowledge having re- 
ceived from Lucius Csecilius 
Jucundus 1386 sesterces the 
amount increase by me on 
the contract stipulated by him. 
Done at Pompeii." Last fall 
another remarkable contract 
was found. It was for deliver- 
ing so many slaves on a cer- 
tain date, to be paid for in 
the Forum at Pompeii. They 
were designated as so many 
' ' boys, '' the word always 
used in the South before the 
war to designate a male slave. 
It never seemed proper for 
slave-holders in any country 
to dignify their property with 
the word " man." 

From the Pompeiian col- 
lection we proceeded to the 
Hall of Marble Statues, and 
the first corridor was that of 
the emperors. One of the 
first that struck our atten- 
tion was that of Julius Caesar, statue of the emperor trajan.— Naples. 
standing with right arm extended as if speaking, and the left 
arm clasping loosely the hilt of his sword ; on his breast the 
Roman eagle, while his imperial toga hung in loose folds from 
his left shoulder. The veins stand out upon the face and 




152 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 




limbs in a very life-like manner, and it is considered a very fine 
representation of the "Noble Roman," 

Another of the statues was that of the Emperor Trajan, a 
rather mild-mannered and cultured-looking man, only somewhat 

abated in dignity by wearing his hair 
"banged." The figures on his cuirass 
represent Minerva between two danc- 
ing figures. 

While none of these statues com- 
pare, as works of art, with others in 
the museum, yet it is a great thing to 
find one's self in the midst of a large 
company of Roman emperors, and to 
be able to study the characteristics re- 
vealed in their faces, and compare 
them with their histories. 

Leading out of the Corridor of Em- 
perors is another called the Portico of 
Balbi, because it contains a number- 
of statues of the Balbus family, chief 
of which is the equestrian statue of M. Nonius Balbus, 
Junior, which stood in the Basilica at Herculaneum. In this 
portico is a statue of Socrates, whose calm, clear, patient eyes 
look out upon the beholder with a very natural expression. 
On the pedestal is engraved in Greek letters the motto of his 
hfe, ' ' Not only now, but always, it has been my habit to fol- 
low only the dictates of my judgment. Mature reflection, I 
find, after strict examination, to be the best of all things." 

But time would fail me to write of all the beautiful marble 
groups, such as the Farnese Hercules, Farnese Bull, Sacrifice 
of Mithras, with the dog and serpent licking up the blood, in 
symbolism. 

Mithraism began with the Persians, and was gradually ex- 
tended into Syria and Palestine, and in the time of the emperors 
through the Roman Empire. The ancient monuments repre- 
sent him- as a handsome youth in Phrygian garb kneehng upon 
an ox, into whose neck he plunges a knife. In the early days 



■AOgF^ 

SOCRATES. — Naples. 




THE STATUE OF JULIUl 



FROM ROME TO NAPLES. 



155 



of Apostasy many Christian teachers sought to identify, in 
some particulars, Mithraism and Christianity. 

His birthday, December 25th, was one of the most im- 
portant festivals of his religion, which has been given by some 




SACRIFICE OF MITHRAS. 



as the reason of fixing upon that date for observing as the 
birth of our Savior, Mithra-worship was suppressed in the 
Roman Empire a. d. 378, but lingered in the eastern countries 
till rooted out by Mohammedanism. 



IN AND AROUND NAPLES. 

Our next day was devoted to the ascent of Vesuvius. 
There are two ways to make it. First, go on early train to 
Pompeii and spend the forenoon in sight-seeing. After lunch 
you can procure horses and guides and make the ascent from 
the southwestern slope. This is a little more laborious, as the 
picture will readily show, than the second route, which is to 
proceed directly in carriage from Naples, driving over the 
buried Herculaneum to the station of the Funicular Railway 
and by it to the summit, but it has two advantages. It en- 
ables those who are pressed for time to see both Pompeii and 
Vesuvius in one day, and it can be accomplished at half the 
expense. We chose the latter route, and all the day wished 
we had taken the other. Taking carriages from the hotel at 
eight, we reached Herculaneum about 9 130 a. m., where we 
began the slow and tortuous ascent to the station of the ele- 
vated Railway. 

It was not long till we found that we were attracting con- 
siderable attention from the boys, who followed us in large 
numbers up the hill, turning somersaults and performing 
other like antics, after which each of them would beg for 
" Merci," as they called it. We were not in a generous mood, 
and failed to take the hint. After a while one rather large 
boy seemed to think the case was becoming desperate, and 
made a grand succession of somersaults up the hill, and then 
came back panting, with his cap held out. 

Failing to get anything, they shook the lava off their feet 

against us and departed. About that time a band of strolling 

musicians took us in hand, and persevered until we had to 

"come down" to get rid of them. At one p. m. we reached 

the station, only to learn that there was something wrong that 

would delay us another hour. 
156 



IN AND AROUND NAPLES. 



157 



At three o'clock we took our seats in the car which was to 
carry us within a hundred yards of the summit. It was a 
crazy, dilapidated looking thing, that looked as though it was 
very unsafe. The railway is about six hundred yards long. 
It starts at an angle of about forty-five degrees and gets steeper 
until it reaches nearly seventy. At the steepest point it 
seemed as though the car would swing free from the track. 
The company is in bankruptcy and I consider the railway dan- 
gerous till it shall be much improved. 





'Ai/lil/urbiiiiMi(iil)iiii)lMiuilm»\WttmiwVv\\\WvM^^^ 




CRATER OF VESUVIUS. 



I want to say right here that going up great heights and 
down into caverns never met any long-felt want in my nature. 
I decidedly prefer the happy medium. I was quite sick the 
morning we started, and would not have gone except that I 
felt sure of being branded as being "afraid." Since the earth- 
quake, Vesuvius has been quite uneasy, and as all earthquakes 
in this region are followed by an eruption either at Vesuvius 
or Etna, I did not feel as tranquil about it as I might have 
felt. 

When we arrived at the summit the smoke and s:as were 



158 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

pouring out and blowing full in our faces with an almost stifling 
power. The guides informed us that we must walk almost 
half way round the crater if we wished to see " the beautiful." 
In order to do this we must cross the stream of lava that was 
thrown out about two month since, and which was yet hot, 
and through which great cloud-pillars of smoke were issuing. 
Every now and then the guide would break through the new 
crust and sink nearly to his knees, as he was not yet familiar 
with the path. We labored on, Bro. Errett in front, led gal- 
lantly by a boy whom he had "chartered." Bro. Moore came 
next and the writer followed, while Bro. Toof and ladies, with 
others, brought up the rear. 

We got along very well till we reached the last cone, which 
consisted of ashes and scoriae. This inclined upward at an 
angle of about sixty degrees, and at every step we sank into 
it half way up to our knees. At last we reached the summit, 
and looked down only to meet a view which was not at all com- 
forting. Several tons of red-hot lava were thrown out in 
pieces varying in size from a goose egg to a nail keg. Your 
correspondent involuntarily turned to see what the landscape 
behind us looked like. As he did so he noticed that Bro. 
Moore had sat down in the ashes. As he could not see into 
the crater sitting down, I exhorted him to get up. He looked 
up at me with a very serious expression and replied, "I am 
not at all alarmed, but I am very tired.'" Now, every one who 
knows Bro. Moore knows there is not an iota of cowardice 
about him, but a man that can look down into Vesuvius when 
it is angry and not get "tired," is a queer compound. In 
fact, we were all tired, and so was every one else that visited 
Vesuvius that day. I simply went there because I was 
ashamed to say that I visited Naples and did not ascend Ve- 
suvius. My private opinion is that all the raptures into which 
people go about the grandeur and sublimity of the visit are 
only a mild way of letting people know they have been there. 
I regard the ascent of Vesuvius as a foolhardy piece of business 
from beginning to end. I should not ascend it again were I to 
go there a hundred times. Moreover, I never conversed with 
a traveler who had any desire to make the trip a second time. 




TO THE TOP OF MT. VESUVIUS, 



Page 159, 



IN AND AROUND NAPLES. 



i6i 



The fact that a man makes it all right once, is, to my mind, 
his best reason for not trying it again. 

The night following, quite an eruption took place, the old 
mountain wearing a corolla of fire all night. 

The following day, we visited Pompeii. There is very lit- 




tle to see now except the location of certain houses, all the 
treasures having been taken to either the local Museum or to 
the one at Naples, We visited the houses of Glaucus, Sallust, 
Diomede Arbaces (Faun), lone, the temples, theatres, and 
forum ; in short, every object of interest in the place. 

It was quite warm when we got back to the station^ and I 
was very thirsty. I stepped to the little stand at the buffet 



l62 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

and asked for "water." The old man attending called his 
daughter, but neither knew what "water" was. I then tried 
for Veau in French, but that did not bring it. I then went 
through the pantomime of putting a glass to my lips and tak- 
ing a drink. The girl turned with alacrity and sat out a glass 
and a bottle of wine. I shook my head, and we were as far 
apart as ever. I then went through the pantomime of digging 
a well and letting down a bucket by a rope Into it. They 
looked on as though they thought I was crazy. At last in 
sheer desperation I grasped an imaginary pump-handle and be- 
gan pumping for dear life. This brought the water, but I can 
assure you that I earned it before I got it. 

The next day being our last and some of the party desir- 
ing to devote it to correspondence and sights in the city, Bros. 
Moore, Toof and myself concluded we would devote it to 
sight-seeing in the environs with especial reference to Pozzuoli, 
or Puteoli as it was called in Paul's day. We found a hack- 
man, Antonio, by name, who knew a little more of English 
than we did of Italian. 

The first spot at which we stopped was the tomb of the 
poet Virgil. It is a small, square building, with vaulted roof. 
Internally it is about fifteen feet square, having a number of 
colombaria or niches to receive the ashes in their sepulchral 
urns. All the urns and ashes, however, have disappeared. 
Several stories are told as to the disposition of the poet's re- 
mains. One statement is that the monks of the adjacent con- 
vent of Mercellini made a present of his ashes to the Cardinal of 
Mantua and, he, desiring to enrich the city of the poet's birth 
with them, started to convey them home. Taking suddenly 
ill, he died at Genoa and the ashes became lost. The more 
probable story, however, is that they were conveyed by the 
Neapolitan Government to the neighboring castle of St. Elmo, 
in whose dark vaults they may yet be found and restored to 
the public. Certain it is, however, that they have disap- 
peared, but if never found it will have little effect upon the 
vEneid. 

After leaving the tomb, we entered a long tunnel about 
one-half mile in length, supposed, in the Middle Ages, to have 



IN AND AROUND NAPLES. 1 63 

been formed by the magic arts of the poet, but was really the 
work of ancient Roman road-makers. It is very much like an 
ordinary railway tunnel, and is now lighted by gas. 

A drive of half an hour along the beautiful Bay of Naples, 
brought us to Pozzuoli. Puteoli was, about 200 b. c. , the 
great headquarters for trade between Rome and the East. It 
has a memorable, classic history. Here Scylla revelled and 
died; Suetonius tells us that Caligula threw a bridge across 
the bay from Puteoli to Baiae. He invented, besides, a new 
kind of spectacle, such as had never been heard of before ; for 
he made a bridge of about three miles and a half in length 
from Baiae to the mole of Puteoli, collecting trading vessels 
from all quarters, mooring them in two rows by their anchors, 
and spreading earth upon them to form a viaduct, after the 
fashion of the Appian Way. This bridge he crossed and re- 
crossed for two days together ; the first day, mounted upon a 
horse, richly caparisoned, wearing upon his head a crown of 
oak leaves, and armed with a battle-axe, a Spanish buckler, 
and a sword, and in a cloak made of cloth of gold ; the day 
following, in the habit of a charioteer, standing in a chariot 
drawn by two high-bred horses, having with him a young boy, 
Darius by name, one of the Parthian hostages, with a chariot 
of the Praetorian guards attending him, and a party of his 
friends in cars of Gaulish make [Suetonius). 

It might interest some readers to know what such mad-man 
antics meant. Suetonius tells us that some thought it to be 
an imitation of Xerxes, who astonished the world by laying a 
bridge across the Hellespont. Others thought it was to strike 
terror to the hearts of the Britains and Germans, whose coun- 
tries he was intent upon invading ; others thought it was to 
disprove an ancient prophecy of Thransyllus, that "Caligula 
could no more'_fill the emperorship than he could ride on horse- 
back across the Gulf of Baiae." 

A short distance along the shore, some fragments rise 
from a cliff that mark the site of Cicero's Puteolan Villa, 
which is known as the Academy. Here he composed his " De 
Fato " and part of his "Academica." " Traveling from Puteoli 
towards Lake Avernus, it is to be seen on the sea-shore, re- 



l64 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

nowned for its fine portico and its grove. Cicero gave it the 
name of Academia, after the grove so called at Athens. It 
was here that he composed those treatises of his that were 
called after it." {Pliny, xxxi. 2.) 

The old pier where Paul landed is still standing, though 
part, of it is in ruins. Standing upon it, we could look across 
the bay for miles and trace the course his vessel must have 
taken. Coneybeare and Howson have done this so graphically 
that I can not forbear copying, which I am sure will be in- 
teresting to the reader. "The idlers of Puteoli were already 
crowding to the pier to watch the arrival of the corn-ship from 
Alexandria So we may safely infer, from a vivid and descrip- 
tive letter preserved among the correspondence of the phil- 
osopher Seneca. He says that all ships rounding into the 
bay were obliged to strike their top-sail, with the exception of 
the Alexandrian corn-vessels, which were thus easily recog- 
nized as soon as they hove in sight. And then he proceeds to 
moralize upon the gathering and crowding of the people of 
Puteoli to watch these vessels coming in. Thus we are fur- 
nished with new circumstances to aid our efforts to realize the 
arrival of the Castor and Pollux on the coast of Italy with St. 
Paul on board. . . . The Italian Christians had long 
been looking for a visit from the famous apostle, though they 
had not been expecting to see him arrive thus, a prisoner in 
chains, hardly escaping shipwreck. But these sufferings would 
only draw their hearts more closely toward him. They earn- 
estly besought him to stay some days with them, and Julius 
was able to allow this request to be complied with." 

As we sat there for nearly an hour, the whole scene came 
before our minds. The nearing of the ship, and its final land- 
ing; the eager throng rushing over the gang-plank both ways 
■with impatient tread. At, last the emergence of him who bore 
a message to Rome grander than all the august ambassadors 
that had ever landed on that mole, the joyful and yet tearful 
greetings of God's people, the gentle strife as to who should 
entertain him, all seemed to rise before our vision, and we felt 
indeed that we were treading consecrated ground. We were 
at length roused from our delightful visions by Antonio, our 



IN AND AROUND NAPLES. I65 

driver, who was becoming very impatient with our long stay. 
He seemed to know nothing of Paul's connection with the spot. 

Antonio was very anxious to show us some things in the 
neighborhood not usually seen by travelers, and we finally gave 
him a carte blanche to go where he pleased, Bro. Toof was very 
anxious to do this, because, he insisted, we had plenty of thne, 
in which he differed from Bro. Moore and myself. After show- 
ing us the old amphitheater and temple of Serapis in the town, 
we were driven out by Cicero's old villa, which he named 
the academy, and from which place he wrote the "Academica." 
Considerable of the ruins still remain, and also part of the 
grove. About a mile from there Antonio pointed out the villa 
of Agrippina — the mother of Nero — to which place she escaped 
after the attempt upon her life. Shortly after passing this, he 
reined up and informed us that we were at Nero's baths, and 
told us we must go through them. 

We knew nothing of Nero's baths, and concluded that it 
was only a place to spend a franc, but we got out and went up 
to the place, which much resembled an ordinary cave. It was 
kept by an old woman who seemed to be the mother of the 
two little boys playing near. After the usual negotiations had 
been concluded, she turned and said something to one of the 
boys, who immediately took off his coat and shirt, and, taking 
a torch, tg^, and bucket, started into the cavern. We all 
started in after him, when Antonio, running up, began gesticu- 
lating wildly and saying, "You no go in dare." 

But, having paid to see Nero's baths, we proposed to see 
them. So we started again, Bro. Moore in front. We had 
not gone more than twenty-five feet when it became fearfully 
hot, and soon Bro. Moore turned back, saying: "Gentlemen, 
I have enough of this." Bro. Toof still insisted that we go 
on, and so I started again. We had not gone ten feet fur- 
ther before I had " enough," and also Bro. Toof. 

The thermometer stands at about one hundred and eighty 
degrees and the hot steam is all the time issuing from the cave. 
When we reached the entrance, Antonio and the old lady 
seemed to be laughing about something. He called us to 
another mouth of the cavern, and we could look about one. 



l66 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

hundred feet into it, and saw the boy coming back, panting 
hke a h'zard, and the perspiration in great drops standing upon 
his body. He had gone about two hundred feet into the 
cavern and dipped up some of the water in his bucket and put 
the egg into it. When he returned, which did not take more 
than two minutes, the egg was half cooked. We next pro- 
ceeded go to Lake Avernus, celebrated by Homer, Virgil and 
Dante as the place of descent into hell and Pluto's domain. 
In a grotto near the lake is the River Styx, which had so prom- 
inent a place in Roman mythology, poetry and history. An- 
tonio informed us that we must pay a franc each to enter the 
grotto. To this we agreed, and a villainous looking Italian 
who was hoeing in a field near was called, and Antonio in- 
formed us that he was the custodian. We followed him to the 
door, where he took a torch and started in, we following, Bro. 
Moore in front, Bro. Toof next, and I in the rear. 

We had gone about one hundred yards when, chancing to 
look back, I saw a rough looking Italian start in at the en- 
trance and come running down after us. He had not gone 
more than fifty feet when another popped in at the entrance 
and came running as for dear life also. Things were getting a 
little mixed. When we entered there was no one to be seen 
but our guide ; the passage was narrow, and Bros. Moore and 
Toof shut out the torch light from me, and I was in almost 
absolute darkness. I called a halt, and told Bros. M. and T. 
that we were being followed by a brigandish looking set. Bro. 
Moore asked the guide in English what it meant. He replied 
in Italian, which, under the circumstances, was not at all satis- 
factory, but all the while leading on. By this' time the fellows 
were right on my heels and I had my knife out, giving them 
to understand, by a slight arc of a circle which I was describ- 
ing, they would better stand back. Bro. Toof was also back- 
ing me as well as he could, which, I confess, was more com- 
forting than sustaining. My great need then was not backing 
but breasting. By this time the guide had gotten Bro. Moore 
upon his shoulders and started over the river. It then began 
to force itself upon my mind that possibly these fellows had 
come in to perform a similar service for Bro. Toof and myself, 



x.-*?- -if-^j^/,,, fapy-^/jm 




•<- 






A MODERN CIRCE. 



Page i67. 



IN AMD AROUND NAPLES. 1 69 

SO I rather "sidled " up against the wall and gave the first fel- 
low a chance to pass. By this time the first guide had re- 
turned with the light but zvithout Bro. Moore. Not knowing 
what old Charon had done with him, I cried across the mystic 
river, "Moore, is it all right?" and in a profound basso 
from the Plutonian depths came the reply, "All right." This 
dissipated all our fear, and so Toof and myself mounted the 
backs of our whilom enemies and began the fearful crossing of 
the Styx. The Styx is not a wide nor deep river, and the pass- 
age is anything but frightful to one who has heard the ' ' voice 
beyond." We soon came to the cavern, where we found Bro. 
Moore seated upon a narrow ledge of rock. They likewise 
deposited Bro, Toof and myself, and then stepped back and 
began /(J laugh. We did not know what they were laughing 
about, and, in fact, none of us saw anything to laugh at. 

They, however, must have seen something, for they 
laughed very heartily. On coming out of the cavern we held 
a little counsel in regard to our adventure. Bro. Moore in- 
sisted that he was not at all scared, but only felt the necessity 
of moving with caution. Bro. Toof declared he was not scared 
either, but felt that we were too much pressed for time to be 
fooling it away in such a place. As for myself, I must confess 
that I was scared, and pretty badly, too ; at least till I found 
out the motive that led the two brigandish looking fellows to 
follow us. Both the grotto and Nero's baths must be con- 
nected with Vesuvius and derive their heat from it. It is 
well enough to visit them once; but, like Vesuvius, once will 
always prove sufficient. 

The same afternoon we bade Naples farewell and started 
for Foggia. The only town of importance between these two 
cities is Benevento — ancient Beneventum. Its original name 
was Maleventum. Traditionally founded by Auson, son of 
Calypso by Ulysses. Another lady (Circe) in olden times 
seemed to be possessed of a cup, which she liberally offered 
to visitors, and those who drank of it were transformed into 
swine. Ulysses was enabled, by a powerful antidote, to resist 
her power, and so she at length became his wife and bore two 
sons. The little Italian girls that we call "belles," are called 



I/O 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



" ciocicara " to-day. They are generally ragged little creatures, 
and all possess a love of gaudy and tawdry wrappings that 
mark their Italian seniors. 




ARCH OF TRAJAN. 



Beneventum became a Roman colony b. c. 268. It is the 
place whence the two main branches of the Appian Way diverge. 
The one Via Trajana going to Apulia and the main road going 
to Tarentum. The principal object of interest to travelers is 



IN AND AROUND NAPLES. I'/ 1 

Trajan's Triumphal Arch, made of Paros marble and dating 
from A. D. 112. It is a single arch overspanning the roadway, 
bearing on each of its faces sculptures relative to the great 
emperor whose name it wears. It was dedicated to the Emperor 
by the senate and people, and, with the exception of the Arch 
of Titus, at Rome, is one of the best preserved of the arches 
in Italy. 

Leaving Benevento at dark and climbing the mountains as 
our train twisted its tortuous way along, we could see, some- 
times upon the right and then upon the left, the flaming light 
that crow^ned the brow of old Vesuvius. We reached Fog- 
gia at lo p. M. It is an old Italian town near the Adriatic Sea 
and on the main line of travel from London through Brindisi to 
Australia and India. It once opened its gates to Hannibal, the 
haughty son of Hamilcar, when making his wars upon Rome. 

We stopped for the night at the Hotel de Milano, which 
has a great name and the most wretched eating in Europe. The 
ride from Foggia to Brindisi is without doubt the finest I ever 
enjoyed. For one hundred miles it is through a continuous 
orchard of olive, peach, almond, and mulberry trees, some of 
which were in full bloom. To our left lay the blue Adriatic. 
"Queen of Seas," dotted with sails of small coasting vessels. 
To the right the Apennines reared their proud heads, bathed 
in the maze of our western Indian summer. 

It was a scene to calm and allay the feelings and bring relief 
from all care. Fences were all marble walls, the houses marble 
structures, and even the broad roads were macadamized with 
marble. 

We arrived at Brindisi about 8 p. m , but found an excellent 
tab/e d'/iote waiting for us. It was here that we obtained our 
first and last dish of patie defoie gras. It looks something like 
one of our American chicken salads, but there the comparison 
ends. The principal ingredient is goose-liver. As some of 
our American ladies might like to try it I will tell them how it 
is made. Take a goose and stuff it with all it will hold and 
more than it can digest, till you bring on an abnormal condi- 
tion, causing enlargement of the liver. Some geese, under this 



172- AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

treatment, have been known to have Hvers weighing three 
pounds. Take the Hver, cut it up and boil it till well done ; 
take equal parts of asafoetida and liver, mix well, and boil 
gently in coal'oil for twenty minutes. Serve cold, with slices 
of salty jelly. I suppose that is the way they ttiake it. It 
tastes like it was made that way, but I took no pains to get the 
recipe. It first came down the side of the table near the 
writer, who took of it pretty liberally, as it looked quite tempt- 
ing; then came Bro. Toof, and next to him was Bro. Moore, 
both of whom helped themselves bountifully. I was fortunate 
enough to get mine out of my mouth before- it had disinte- 
grated ; but for the next three minutes I think' there was more 
chewing and less swallowing done by our party than by any 
three men I ever saw. Yet those misera!ble Italians could sit 
there and eat it, and smile and pretend they hked the abominable 
stuff. After that whenever we saw on our inenu the words 
"Patie de foie Gras, " "we went clean round," as the old 
darkey said about the graveyard. 

We left Brindisi upon the Austrian Lloyd's Steamer. 
"Thalia," which, without doubt, is the most elegant and cozy 
little steamer I ever saw. The line is well managed, the rooms 
are clean, well ventilated and lighted by electricity, while the 
cuisine is greatly superior to the Cunarders. As many would 
like to know how we lived upon our trip, I will give 
you a sample of a day's eating. We rise about 7 130 A. m., 
and, after a salt water bath, take our coffee and Vienna rolls. 
At 10 A. M. the bell rings for dejeuner, or meat breakfast. It 
consists of, first, boiled eggs and some kind of meat, with tea or 
coffee. This is followed by beef roasted with potatoes. Then 
come pigeons baked with sauce ; after this preserved fruits ; 
then oranges, apples, pears, etc. At 5-p. m. we have dinner. 
It begins with soup followed by roast beef, succeeded by vfeal • 
then comes roast chicken and salad, followed by pudding, ice- 
cream, fruits, etc. At eight p. m. we have tea, consisting 
of bread, cakes, hot coffee, or spirits to those who prefer it. 
So starvation is not the most imminent danger before us. 

About thirty-six hours out from Brindisi we reached the 



IN AND AROUND NAPLES. 



173 



Island of Crete, and shortly after the smaller Claudia which 
sheltered Paul. As we passed quite near it we took out our 
Bibles and read the account of it, and could see the only har- 
bor answering to his description. Wednesday at five a. m. we 
arrived at Alexandria. 




1:^11^1 l>kimW|>fcH:f;U;kll;<^immi^li^ll:4;imi>kll^ll^l I: 




n m m m m m m m i^i m m i^i i^n^i'bki i:ki \m^\u 



ALEXANDRIA. 



We reached Alexandria March 9th in the gray of the morn- 
ing twilight, and, stepping upon the deck for a few moments' 
walk before breakfast, we could see the low, sandy shores of 
the African coast rising with but slight elevation above the 
water. We spent one day in examining what few points of 
interest are left to the modern city. It was founded by Alex- 
ander the Great, who traced with his own hand the ground 
plan of the city. He had wisdom to see that its situation 
adjacent to the great river of Egypt and the two of the three then 
known seas of the world, would command the traffic of both 
the eastern and western worlds. During the period between 
the fall of Babylon and Nineveh and the rise of Rome, Alex- 
andria was the world's metropolis. Even after Rome had 
become the mistress of the world, Alexandria was for genera- 
tions the Queen of the East, city of cities, and a second Rome. 
That which Alexander planned, his successor — probably his 
half-brother — carried to completion, though it did not reach 



ALEXANDRIA. 



175 



the zenith of its glory till the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus — 
a name given him, most probably, in irony, because he mur- 






'W^-S^ 








THE PHAROS AN ALEXANDRIA. — RESTORNAION. 



dered his two brothers. It was at this time a city of 600,000 
inhabitants, v/ith two large streets two hundred feet wide in- 



1/6 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

tersecting each other in the heart of the city. At their inter- 
section they formed an oval park, adorned with flowers, foun- 
tains, and statues. 

One of the first places we visited was the site of the old 
light-house on the Isle of Pharos, to which it gave its own 
name. It was of white stone, four hundred feet high, and 
comprised a number of stories. These diminished in height 
as it rose. So gentle was the incline that a chariot 
and pair of horses could easily be driven up to the sum- 
mit. Upon the summit a fire was kept burning by night, 
which made it serve the purpose of our modern light-house. 
It was built by Ptolemy Philadelphus, and he instructed the ar- 
chitect to cut into the stone, the inscription, " Fwing Ptolemy 
to the Savior Gods, for the use of those who travel by sea." 
Instead of the name of Ptolemy, however, the architect carved 
his own upon the stone and covered it over with that of 
Ptolemy, in stucco work. As ages rolled on the name of Ptol- 
emy fell off, and was thus blotted out, while the name of Sos- 
tratus endured. Ptolemy is not the only man who has thought 
he rendered himself immortal, but whose name has been 
blotted out by the lapse of time. The Christian who over- 
comes in life's battle, has the promise that his name shall not 
be blotted out of the book of life. This structure still existed 
in the thirteenth century, but it is now all obliterated. Thus 
time has wrought vengeance upon Sostratus for his treachery 
to Ptolemy. 

The only remaining object of striking interest about Alex- 
andria, is Pompey's Pillar. It was erected in honor of Prefect 
Pompeius, and not Pompey the Great. At least the inscrip- 
tion so reads. But the best authorities now declare that it was 
in honor of Diocletian and his mercy in sparing the city after 
a terrible revolt, and bloody, but ineffectual, resistance. Upon 
the summit of the pillar is a circular depression with attach- 
ments, which show that there once rested some sort of statue 
upon it. A local tradition gives it that Diocletian was so en- 
raged by the stubborn resistance of the citizens, he swore that 
when captured he would put them to death till blood was upon 
his horse's knees. While the massacre was progressing, his 



ALEXANDRIA. 



177 



horse stumbled and fell, causing its knees to be colored with 
blood. Diocletian inferred from this that he had punished 
them sufficiently, and so ordered the massacre to be stopped. 
In honor of this clemency it is claimed that his esquestrian 
Statue once adorned the pillar. This, however, is only sup- 
ported by traditional evidence. It is a single red granite shaft, 
seventy three feet high and eight feet in diameter, resting upon 





POMPEY S PILLAR. 



a base and crowned by a capital of inferior polish. The whole 
structure is nearly one hundred feet high. An Arab tradition 
tells us that it is only one of four hundred of its kind, which 
once supported the great Serapeum, or temple of Serapis, that 
stood at this place. Serapis, in the Egyptian mythology, was 
the Pluto of the Greeks — the giver of blessings — and though 



178 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

his worship was at first accepted unwillingly by the Alexan- 
drians, it grew in popularity, till forty-two temples were erected 
to him in Egypt. When the Emperor Theodosius issued his 
order prohibiting idolatry in the Roman empire, the Christians 
sought the opportunity to overthrow the Serapeum. The 
pagans intrenched themselves within its walls, with the Chris- 
tians as besiegers. Prisoners taken by the pagans were in- 
humanly butchered before their altars. At last a truce was 
agreed upon till official news could be brought from Rome. 
It was heard in the pubhc square with shouts of exultation by 
the Christians and wails of despair by the idolaters, who fled 
to their temple for safety. 

"The Christians rushed upon the temple, and began its 
demohtion unresisted. But they paused in their ruthless work 
before the statue of Serapis. It was a colossal seated image, 
embodying the attributes of the most venerated deities of 
both Egypt and Greece. Its extended hands touched both 
walls of the sanctuary. It was made of plates of various met- 
als, inlaid with precious stones. The symbol of plenty, a 
golden basket, rested upon its head ; a serpent, the emblem of 
eternity, coiled around its body, and a three-headed cerberus 
crouched by its side. Many supposed it had been worshiped 
by the great Sesostris. The pagans believed that if this idol 
were overthrown, the earth would open and swallow the city, 
or the sea rise and overwhelm it. The Christians were not free 
from similar apprehensions. They paused before the image in 
anxious suspense. In vain Theophylus (archbishop) strove by 
mocking taunts to urge them forward. > A solitary Roman 
soldier, bearing a ladder and a battle-axe, advanced into the 
open space which superstitious fears had kept inviolate. No 
one ventured to assist him. As he laid the ladder upon the 
idol's shoulder and ascended its rounds, the Christians were 
spellbound by an awe they could not master. That soldier 
deserves to rank among the bravest of men. With all his force 
he struck his battle-axe into the idol's cheek. The golden 
plate fell crashing upon the stone pavement. That clang rang 
the loudest death-knell of idolatry in the empire." — Ancient 
Cities, 




C^SAR AT THE GRAVE OF ALEXANDER, AT ALEXANDRIA. 

After the painting by H. Showmer. 



Page 179, 



ALEXANDRIA. l8l 

Until within a few years, two obelisks stood near this pil- 
lar, brought from Heliopolis, where they adorned the temple 
in which Joseph's father-in-law ministered as a priest. They 
were removed to decorate the imperial gardens, or, as some 
suppose, to commemorate the spot where, in a coffin of pure 
gold, Alexander was buried after being removed from Mem- 
phis. Here Julius Caesar during his stay in Alexandria assist- 
ing Cleopatra to overthrow her brother, Ptolemy, and establish 
herself upon the throne of Egypt, came and stood in silence 
over the body of Alexander, meditating, doubtless, upon the 
great changes wrought by time upon the world's conquerors. 
These obelisks have been removed, one of them adorning the 
Thames embankment, in London, the other standing in Cen- 
tral Park, New York. It seems to me that the Egyptian gov- 
ernment is very short-sighted in allowing these magnificent 
monuments to be hauled off in such manner to other countries. 

At the base of the pillar, and toward the city, is a Moslem 
graveyard filled with tombs above ground. This occupies the 
site of the once famous museum, library and university. Here 
the scholars of the world resorted to polish and finish their 
education. Here the great polemics of the ages have won and 
lost their laurels. Here Christianity at one time shone with its 
most sparkling brilliancy and lustrous splendor. But it is now 
all desolation. Those Christian lights sought to infuse the 
heathen philosophy of the world into Christ's gospel. In do- 
ing so, they abandoned the simplicity which is in Christ. The 
gospel was no longer the power of God ; the fine gold became 
dimmed ; the brilliant morning was swallowed up in murky 
night, and the degenerate sons of Egypt have lapsed back into 
the darkness of Moslem fanaticism. When I stand upon this 
spot, and see before me the terrible fruitage of the past sectar- 
ianism and apostasy, I tremble for the Church of God that is 
now so rent with rival factions, and prone to apostatize from 
the "faith once delivered to the saints." 

Alexandria is connected in many instances with the New 
Testament. It was the home of Apollos, whom Paul has 
coupled with himself in the declaration, "I have planted, and 
Apollos watered. " It was the Alexandrian Jews, in Jerusalem, 



l82 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

that moved the rabble to stone Stephen. An Alexandrian 
corn ship carried Paul on his journey to Rome, while Simon of 
Cyrene had his home west of the city, and must have trod its 
streets. Here, too, according to an honored tradition Mark 
met his martyr-death, in the eighth year of Nero's reign, while 
bishop of the city. 

It was noted as being the home of two women, one of 
whom was a representative of all that is intrinsically good in 
her race, while the other was diametrically the opposite — 
Hypatia and Cleopatra. The former was daughter of Cleon, 
the philosopher — pure, gentle, modest, and of rare beauty; 
yet brilliant, from both her natural ability and acquiremets. 
Excelling all the great philosophers in her time, they flocked to 
her for instruction. Her celebrated lectures upon Aristotle 
and Plato were a marvelous success, both at Alexandria and 
Athens. Being a heathen, she naturally excited the distrust of 
the Church, and was by its leaders accuse;^ of influencing 
Orestes (the prefect of Alexandria) against Christianity. Led 
on by some hot minds, a mob attacked her in the streets, and 
dragged her to a neighboring church, where she was torn limb 
from limb, and her dismembered fragments burned with fire. 

The other woman, Cleopatra, was the daughter of Ptolemy 
Auletes, called in derision, "The Flutist." He bequeathed 
his kingdom to his son, Ptolemy, and his daughter, Cleopatra. 
Destitute of all moral sense, and as heartless as Minerva, she 
possessed wit, beauty, and culture. She spoke seven lan- 
guages with the marvelous melody of her mother tongue. 
Three times she matched her powers against the Roman em- 
perors, succeeding twice, but failing the third. James Anthony 
Froude says Julius Csesar was the strongest man known to 
history. Conveyed, by an artifice, into his presence, she so 
completely fascinated him that he was her willing slave till the 
dagger of Brutus ended his life. 

Whem Mark Antony came into power, he commanded her 
to appear before him in Cilicia, for failing to use her influence 
against Caesar's murderers. She came in state, in a gilded 
barge having sails of purple, with silver oars, covered with a 
canopy of gold. The music of the flute kept time with the 




ANTONIUS AND CLEOPATRA AS OSIRIS AND ISIS AT ALEXANDRIA. 

Drawn by B. Moerlings. Page 183. 



ALEXANDRIA. 1 85 

dip of the oars, children dressed as cupids sat at her feet, 
while fair maids handled the ropes and scattered perfumes. 
She met, and with a smile conquered the great Triumvir ; and 
from that day he followed her a willing captive, giving up 
all for her smiles and kisses, till he finally perished at 
her feet in Alexandria. After Antonius died, she was 
taken prisoner into the presence of Octavianus, where she 
tried all her charms upon the great Roman, but with failure. 
He made arrangements to carry her to Rome — a trophy to 
grace his triumphal entry into the city. She was, however, 
soon after found dead among her attendants, perishing, accord- 
ing to common belief, from the bite of an asp conveyed to her 
in a basket of fruit. 

At. 10 A. M., March loth, we left Alexandria for Cairo, at 
which place we arrived about 3 p. m. The appearance of the 
country from Alexandria to Cairo is not unnatural to one 
reared, as I was, in the West. It is very similar to our West- 
ern prairies. But every living thing is so different, you begin 
at once to feel thdX you are the foreigner. The ungainly camel 
stalks along with his immense burden ; the patient plodding 
little donkey, for which you have an entirely unnecessary sym- 
pathy, trots along under his load that seems ready to crush 
him. It is not an unfrequent thing to see him carrying two 
full-grown men. The ungainly Egyptian cattle, with their 
long horns lying upon their necks, and not a horse, mule, cart 
or wagon to be seen, tell you that you are away from all mod- 
ern improvements. 

Every few hundred yards there is a large wheel with buck- 
ets or earthen jugs fastened upon it, which is turned by an ox. 
The lower edge dips below the surface of the canal, and thus 
fills the jugs. The revolution brings these to the top in an in- 
verted position, and the water is turned out into a trough and 
carried through the fields for irrigating the land. This is the 
aristocratic way. Occasionally you will see two men with 
ropes, to which is attached a dish, somewhat like a butter dish. 
By means of the ropes they will throw this dish into the water, 
and then out upon the land again, with such dexterity as to 
bring up several gallons* of water cX each dip. Once I saw a 



1 86 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



little boy, about ten years old, handling an old water bucket 
attached to a "sweep pole." The boy, the bucket, and the 
sweep, all looked tired, and I fancy the amount of water lifted 
by that machine was not enormous. The people live in vil- 
lages, in houses which are made of mud-bricks, dried in the 
sun, and are very similar to the Western "dug-out." They 
are the filthiest looking places that I ever saw human beings 
living in. Not one in a thousand of the fellaheen population 
can read or write. The Egyptian government of late years has 
been spending about ^1,000,000 on public education, but Brit- 
ish occupation has cost so much that it is forced to economize 
in the outlay for schools. There is a strong sentiment among 
the English in favor of withdrawing the troops from Egypt, 
and I think it will be done at no distant day. 




atania ^ 



CAIRO AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 

The first object to attract our attention as we approached 
Cairo were the Pyramids, looming up hke mountains out of the 
plain. 

Our sensations were very peculiar. We had read of them, 
and heard of them, and seen pictures of them since our boy- 



''\^ V' ^ 











PYRAMID AT GHIZEH. 



hood days. But there they were in actual sight and looking 
for all the world like the pictures upon which we had so often 
gazed. It seemed as if we could not look at them enough. 
Every one crowded to our side of the carriage, and all heads 
were thrust out of the windows, regardless of dust or cinders. 
Napoleon's famous exhortation to his soldiers, "Forty centu- 
ries look down upon you," seemed to take on a new meaning. 

187 



l88 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE, 

But "while we muse the fire burns" — in the locomotive, and 
soon we find ourselves in a little tumble-down shanty, that 
answers the purposes of a station in Cairo for the Khedivial 
Railway, and our carriages are in waiting for us. 

As we are traveling under a personal conductor, we have 
nothing to do in arranging the details of our trip. I regard it 
as greatly superior to traveling by one's self, especially in Ori- 
ental countries. We have no trouble about carriages, donkeys, 
or boats ; neither does our conductor allow us to be bothered 
by the natives. He often has to belabor them with his stick, 
but they seem to take it good-naturedly. When they find out 
we are "Cook's travelers, " they immediately abandon us for 
the individual who is traveling alone. Thomas Cook & Sons is 
as large and respectable an organization in the Eastern Coun- 
tries as "The Pullman Palace Car Co." is in the United States. 
They are, moreover, fully as much of a luxury. They control 
every steamer that floats the Nile, by special contract with the 
Khedive. They are agents for all the railroads and steamboat 
lines of the Mediterranean coast, and all the principal hotels of 
Europe and Asia. Our conductor has our rooms all engaged 
at the hotels for us. Our carriages waiting at the depots and 
an interpreter or two, beside a large number of boatmen and 
baggage servants, are in uniform, with " Cook & Sons " in gold 
braid upon their hats and coats. When our ship came to anchor 
in the harbor of Alexandria, it was surrounded by an innumer- 
able company of Arabs, all clamoring to take passengers 
ashore. The first to reach the ship was a large boat manned 
by nearly a dozen boatmen ; at the front waved the Union Jack, 
on which was embroidered in white, " Cook & Sons." When 
it touched the ship, a patriarchal old Oriental — Samuel by name 
— came up, heading a dozen porters, and cried out, ' ' Mr. Cook's 
passengers will please give me the numbers of their state-rooms." 
As soon as a number was given, a porter started for it, and 
never stopped till every bag, trunk and parcel was removed 
and placed in the boat. The passengers were then handed 
carefully down, and the question asked, "Is all the baggage 
here?" We then pulled direct for the Custom House, through 
which we were passed without examination, of our trunks, 







SNAKE CHARMER. 



Page iS 



CAIRO AND MOHAMMEDANISM. . I9I 

and, taking carriages, were at our hotel and breakfast at least 
an hour before any of our fellow-travelers. 

Our conductor, Mr. Braschi, has been for years doing noth- 
ing but conducting parties through this country. At every 
city he also provides local guides to explain everything about 
the habits, customs and costumes of the people. All caste and 
race distinctions are given, so that one gains more information 
about the people in one day under his guidance than he could 
"pick up" by himself in weeks. 

Mr. Braschi a few years ago took a party of twelve hundred 
people through Palestine, and so perfect were the arrangements 
that not a day was lost, not a bag nor parcel left behind. I 
write thus fully about this because from now on we are to be 
under Cook's guidance, and must necessarily refer to it in 
many ways. 

Our conductor during the day listens carefully to the sug- 
gestions of each individual traveler, and at night makes out the 
program for the next day, embodying, as nearly as can be 
done, the different choices of sites and objects to be seen. This 
is passed around, and the hour for starting announced. The 
traveler has nothing to do but study up upon the sights he will 
visit the following day. 

Our quarters are at the New Hotel, which is the largest and 
finest in the city. It fronts upon the Ezbekiyeh, which is con- 
sidered the center of the city. It is named in honor of Emir 
Ezbek, one of Egypt's great generals. A mosque was for- 
merly erected here to his memory, but it has been removed. 
It is a large garden, octagonal in shape, and covers about 
twenty acres, containing all manner of tropical plants, 
flowers and trees, among which are many handsome Banyan 
trees, A brass band plays every afternoon from 5 to 8 o'clock, 
and then it is crowded full of people. 

Cairo is a much handsomer city than Alexandria, and more 
than twice as large. It is the largest in Africa, and next to 
Constantinople the largest under Mohammedan rule. It is as 
nearly cosmopolitan as any place we have seen. 

Here is a mixture of all nations and creeds. The sons of 
Shem, Ham and Japheth buy and sell in her markets. The 



192 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

mosque, cathedral and chapel adorn her streets, while the 
Cross and Crescent blend in strange harmony. You can pass 
along one of the main streets of Cairo and imagine you are in 
England or America, while you can go two blocks away and 
conceive 5^ourself to be in Bagdad, or in the land of the Arabian 
Nights. 

Upon the broad verandah of our hotel, which extended 
Something like one hundred feet in front of the house, men of 
India would display their wares, and the snake-charmer of 
Central Africa would perform for your enjoyment (?) and his 
profit. One of the miserable creatures used to come every 
evening, and bring his "school" of snakes of all sizes, and 
give his loathsome performances with deadly reptiles, to the 
great disgust of nearly all the guests and the extreme delight 
of a few, whose tastes seemed to be in sympathy with his own. 

Our first afternoon was spent in visiting our Consular office, 
where we were most handsomely entertained by Mr. Cardwell, 
of Texas, whom we found to be as agreeable a gentleman and 
as thorough an American as we met while abroad. We also 
visited the various bazaars, such as the handkerchief, the shoe, 
and fez bazaars. 

The following morning our first point of interest was the 
Citadel. This was a fortified place erected by Saladin, 1166, 
and the only place of defense in the city. The Turks let it fall 
into ruin, until it was thoroughly repaired by the late Pasha. 
It is now occupied by British troops. It is situated about one 
hundred feet above the general level of the city, and when built 
thoroughly commanded the city. Since the invention of gun- 
powder it is of little use, however, as a place of defense, being 
too near the Mokattom range of hills, from whence the British 
easily commanded it. Within the precincts are a cannon foun- 
dry, printing press, and the mint. Here also is the celebrated 
Gate where the Mamelukes were slaughtered by order of Me- 
hemet Ali. Only one escaped, and he jumped his horse over 
the wall, down forty feet upon some rocks. The horse was 
killed by the fall, but the man escaped, only to be overtaken 
and killed in the Mosque of Sultan Hassan, near by. In this 
latter Mosque, which is considered the finest piece of Arabian 



CAIRO AND MOHAMMEDANISM. I93 

architecture in the world, they still show the spot where his 
blood stained the marble floor. I noticed a great many sim- 
ilar stains on the floor in other parts of the Mosque, and came 
to the conclusion that there must have been more than a dozen 
Mamelukes killed in the Mosque, if the discolored spots are 
any testimony. 

Here is also what is known as Joseph's Well. It is a re- 
markable well, about 15 feet square, and cut down 280 feet into 
the solid rock. The guide tells you that Joseph, when under 
Pharaoh, had it built in commemoration of the pit into which 
he was cast by his brethren. The guide-dook tells you that no 
one knows the origin of the well, though one Yussuf (Joseph) 
had it excavated and put in repair about seven hundred years 
ago. The reader can take his choice of the above versions. 

The mosque within the citadel was built by Mehemet Ali, 
the Napoleon Bonaparte of Egypt. It is of pure alabaster. 
Its floor is covered with the richest rugs of the Orient. When 
you come to the door you are stopped and slippered ; for the 
unhallowed foot of the infidel is not allowed to tread its courts. 
The dome surpasses in beauty anything of the kind we ever 
saw, not even excepting St. Peter's, at Rome. You are at 
once struck with the utter absence of all those abominable pic- 
tures of the Virgin and child, crucifixion, descent from the 
cross, etc., which appear upon the walls, but do not adorn, the 
Catholic churches. The religion of "The Prophet" forbids 
the representation of the human form under such circum- 
stances ; and it was really refreshing to get into a building not 
so desecrated. The beautiful pillars and dome had glass globe 
pendants, in which candles are placed on certain holy days. It 
looked more like a church of Christ than any Catholic Church 
I ever saw. 

In this mosque is a handsome mambar, or pulpit, from 
whence the faithful are harangued upon the Koran at stated 
times by their priests. A faithful likeness of one is presented 
in the engraving. It is but just to them to say that all who 
attend give respectful attention to the speaker. It is left for 
little Christian boys to eat peanuts and pelt one another with 



194 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

shells, and young men and women to write love missives dur- 
ing the sermon. 

The view from the citadel is by far the finest around Cairo. 
To the west, the Great Pyramids and Boulac, with its museum. 
To the east, Heliopohs and its obelisk, with the Virgin's tree 
and ostrich farm. To the north, Shoubrah and Ghez'rah 
Palaces, with the grounds and drives ; while southward we see 
Memphis and Sakkara, with a whole group of pyramids cen- 
tering around the " Step Pyramid." 

We visited many other mosques besides the one at the 
citadel, but as they were inferior to this one, we will only say 
that there are four hundred mosques in Cairo, some having as 
many as six minarets, and adorned with beautiful columns 
brought from Hehopolis, Memphis, and other places. The 
largest of these is El Azhur, which has been turned into a 
Moslem University, and has become the principal center of 
education for Moslem priests. 

It has about 7,700 students, of all ages from five to fifty 
years. They are taught by about 250 teachers. We spent 
one forenoon in visiting it. The students were seated on the 
bare floors, in little clusters around their teachers, engaged in 
memorizing the Koran. As soon as they know it " by heart," 
they are given a diploma entitling them to teach it. All other 
teaching in the University, is merely subsidiary to the great 
object of learning the Koran. When we entered the school, 
our guide warned us to beware of pickpockets, as they 
abounded among the students. Certainly a queer attitude in 
which to place men who were candidates for a religious priest. 
hood. What a commentary upon the failure of a false religion, to 
bring our humanity to its fruitage and perfection ! What a 
contrast to the Christian religion ! Fancy such a caution being 
extended at the door of a Presbyterian theological seminary or 
a Baptist divinity school ! The very suggestion is itself ridicu- 
lous ! 

The mosque of Amre is the oldest and most venerated, and 
lies in old Cairo, near the old Roman fortress of Babylon, 
which venerable tradition makes the "Babylon" from which 
the Apostle Peter wrote. This mosque has a square court and 




yREACHING THE KORAN. 



Page 195. 



CAIRO AND MOHAMMEDANISM. I97 

gallery supported by 200 columns. One of these pillars has a 
remarkable history. It is said, when constructing the mosque, 
it was desirable to have at least one column from Mecca, 
They addressed the Caliph, who ordered one of the columns at the 
latter place to fly to Cairo. Either being too modest or lazy, 
or for some other reason, it refused to stir. After repeated 
commands, the Caliph at last became angry, and struck it a 
severe blow with a whip, and commanded it in Allah's name 
to go. This moved it, but whether it was Allah's name or 
the blow from the whip which brought it, the tradition wisely re- 
frains from telling. The mark of the whip is plainly visible 
upon the column yet ! Also the name of the prophet is shown 
under the polished surface of the granite. In the center of the 
mosque is a spring which has connection with the famous 
Zemzem spring at Mecca. It is only about 1,200 miles — a 
large part of which is under the bed of the Red Sea. The 
well was dry when we were there, and we concluded the Zem- 
zem was running low at Mecca, and they had cut off the Cairo 
supply." 

The more an intelligent man studies Mohammedanism, 
whether in its teachings or the lives of its votaries, the more 
disgusting it becomes, and the greater the wonder that any in- 
telligent people could fall under its sway. The only possible 
theory is, that it is indeed the "Scourge of the Almighty." 
The center of this great system is at Mecca — a city of perhaps 
10,000 permanent residents — about forty miles east of the Red 
Sea. It doubtless owes its settlement to the fact of its having 
a copious well of water in the little valley. The whole Moham- 
medan population of the world believe that well — the Zemzem 
— is the one the Angel Gabriel caused to spring forth in this 
desert to save the life of Hagar and her son Ishmael when 
they were driven forth from Abraham's tents. 

Over this well stands the Kaaba Tem.ple. The first temple 
built here was for Adam, and it was an exact model of the one 
which existed in the paradise from whence he was driven. 
After his death, Seth built another of the same model, which 
was destroyed by the flood ; but Abraham and Isaac erected 
another by the aid of a great stone scaffold that rose and fell of 



1 98 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE, 



its own free will and accord — a vast improvement over modern 
ones. As proof of the truth of the above, the faithful have 
only to go and see the original stone there yet, and with the 
print of Abraham's feet upon it, thus stamping the whole story 
with the seal of truthfulness. There is also in this Kaaba an- 




other stone, which came down from paradise pure white, but 
the depravity of the race has turned it very black. If the de- 
pravity of the race is not sufficient to account for the change, 
we can add also the trifling fact that every greasy, dirty, lousy 



CAIRO AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 



199 



pilgrim from the four quarters of the globe, who has during the 
last thousand years made a pilgrimage to Mecca, has been 
obliged to pass seven times around the Kaaba and at each cir- 
cuit wipe his dirty lips upon this stone. Somewhere in the 
sixth century one of the magnates in this city and temple had 
born into his family a wonderful boy. At the moment of his 
birth the sacred fire of the Persians was extinguished — an event 
that had not occurred in a thousand previous years. The great 




THE PROPHET MOHAMMED. 



palace of the king of Persia got such a shaking up, or rather 
shaking down, that fourteen of its towers fell. On one occa- 
sion this youngster, whose name was Mohammed, came in and 
reported that two angels in white apparel had thrown him down 
and ripped him open — taken out his heart and squeezed it till 
a black drop came out, which proved to be the original sin in- 
herited from Adam. All persons born of Adam have this 
black drop, except the Virgin Mary and her Son. This boy 



200 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE, 

grew to be a man, and was but little known except as a preacher 
and religious teacher. Seeing that something more was neces- 
sary, the happy thought came to his rescue that, as Moses and 
Christ both worked miracles, so ought he. He experimented 
for a while upon actual miracles, and not finding a very wide 
margin upon these, he concluded to try visions ; so, calling in 
his friends, he made known his dream to them. It was as fol- 
lows: The night before, the angel Gabriel came to him, lead- 
idg an animal — a cross between a mule and an ass. This was 
Alborak, that had always been reserved for the especial service 
of the prophets. Now, not having been in use for nearly six 
hundred years, he had become somewhat restive, and, in Amer- 
ican phraseology, "felt his keeping." He would not allow 
Mohammed to mount until he was promised a golden stall in 
paradise. Then it took just the twinkling of an eye to cover 
the distance to Jerusalem, where he was met by all the proph- 
ets and patriarchs with a request to be remembered in his 
prayers. He then, in company with Gabriel, began to ascend 
a great ladder. Coming to the door of the first heaven, they 
read thereon, "There is no God but God," and on the other 
side was added, " Mohammed is his apostle." Being informed 
by Gabriel that Mohammed was with him, the door flew open 
and they entered. It was of pure silver and a glorious place. 
A very old gentleman came up, rejoicing that he could see his 
noble son, and the prophet was told that it was Adam. Out 
of this heaven the stars, each of which is a hollow silver ball, 
hung suspended by a golden chain. An angel was placed in 
each star to guard against any devil entering paradise. Some 
times the devils would assemble around heaven's door to eaves- 
drop, and the angels would hurl fiery darts at them, which pro- 
duced what we call on earth "shooting stars." Every Mo- 
hammedan, therefore, who sees this phenomenon, is persuaded 
that some poor devil is "catching it." From the first to the 
second heaven is a journey of 500 years. 

Among the numberless angels he saw there was the angel 
of the cocks. He was tall enough to reach all the way from 
the first to the second heaven. Every morning the Almighty 
sings a song, in which the cock joins, which everything on earth 



CAIRO AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 201 

hears but man. This, he says, accounts for the crowing of the 
earthly roosters. On the walls of this heaven he found the 
same inscription as upon the first, and on entering he found 
that it was made of pure gold. Noah was the prominent patri- 
arch of this place. They passed into the third heaven, finding 
there a similar inscription. The angels of this heaven were 
very large ; one particularly large one was a 70,000 days jour- 
ney between the eyes. 

The fourth heaven was composed entirely of emerald, and 
the ruling patriarch was Moses. The fifth, being adamant, was 
presided over by Joseph. The sixth was of carbuncle, and 
John the Baptist was supreme. The seventh was gloriously 
light, and Jesus reigned in it. There were more angels here 
than in all others. One possessed 70,000 heads, each of which 
had 70,000 mouths, with 70,000 tongues to each mouth, and 
each tongue made 70,000 voices, continually going ! At last 
he is told to salute his God, and is carried to the throne of the 
Almighty, on one side of which was, "There is no God but 
God," and on the other, " Mohammed is his prophet," The 
Almighty was covered with 70,000 veils, and reached forth and 
put his hand upon him in a way that gave him the shivers, but 
sent him back to tell this great "cock and bull story" to the 
sons of men. 

Now, when Mohammed had finished his vision, his most 
intimate friends were staggered, and some were so irreverent as 
to laugh at the whole thing. It seemed that the vision was 
destined to fall flat, till in a critical moment his old friend 
Abubekir stood up and sturdily avowed his belief in the whole 
story. Now, Abubekir was a man of weight in the com- 
munity, and his faith caused the dream to be considered in a 
more favorable light, especially as it was backed up by a sort 
of insinuation that he would be pleased to form the acquaint- 
ance of the gentleman who did not believe. Before this implied 
threat Mohammedan infidelity gave way, and since then they 
have readily and greedily swallowed every fool story that has 
been originated up to the present date We have given this 
short history of the prophet and his dream to prepare our read- 
ers for some of the longer and larger stories they will be com- 



202 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

pelled to hear with us in Palestine. I don't say that the Mo- 
hammedans tell lies, but if all they say is true, they can tell 
some of the largest truths to which I ever listened. 

In the desert behind the Citadel is an extensive necropolis, 
where there are many tombs, including the Pasha's tomb, built 
by him for his family, and adorned with five spacious domes. 
Here hired mourners perform. They will sit around some old 
Pasha's remains, and wail as though their hearts would break ; 
but when their "job" is done, they will quit, and go out 
laughing and joking like boys when school is "let out." The 
Tombs of the Mamelukes present various forms, some of them 
being very elegant, having domes supported by finely carved, 
transparent marble columns. About one mile away from these 
are the Tombs of the Caliphs. They are beautiful structures, 
being of the light and elegant style of the Sarancenic architec- 
ture, and having some exquisitely carved domes and minarets. 
About five miles northeast of these last tombs is situated Heli- 
opolis, the city of the sun, and corresponding to the On of 
the Bible. It is perhaps the oldest place in all this land of an-, 
tiquities. It was a priestly and university town. Here Plato 
graduated. Here Potiphar lived, who bought Joseph. Here 
Joseph obtained his wife. In the time of Herodotus the wisest 
and most learned men of the world centered around Heliopolis. 
It has but one remaining obelisk, built as generally supposed, 
by the Pharaoh of Joseph's time. The bees have built in the 
hieroglyphic writing, and nearly obliterated it by their honey- 
comb. Moses was most probably educated at this place, and 
became there learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. The 
obelisk which now stands in Central Park, New York, stood 
here primarily. It was taken from here to Alexandria, whence 
it was removed to its last resting-place. 



OUT OF EGYPT. 

We have previously spoken of the pyramids and the im- 
pression they made upon us from a distance. They are ten 
miles southwest from Cairo. I had always supposed them to 
lie in a desert country and the road thence to be over burning 
sands. The entire route was through as fertile a tract as I ever 
saw in my own country. The road is well shaded by Acacia 
trees, and beautiful meadows of clover, Irish vetch, and other 
grasses stretch away to right and left. A line of electric rail- 
way, is one of the coming events, and the traveller' of the next 
decade will doubtless ascend the Pyramids in an elevator. The 
road crosses the Nile by a handsome bridge 600 feet long, 
which has replaced the old ferry and pontoon bridge. Each 
side of the entrance to the bridge is ornamented with a colossal 
bronze figure of a lion about fifteen feet in height. Through 
this passway a great procession of camels, donkeys and fine 
European carriages is constantly passing. I counted nineteen 
camels on the bridge at one time. 

It passes through the decayed town of El Fostat, the gran- 
aries of Joseph, seven large towers supposed to be connected 
with the years of famine, near the Roda Island, on the Nile. 
The famous Nilometer is located upon this island, upon whose 
bank, also, tradition locates the finding of Moses by Pharaoh's 
daugher. A magic charm surrounds the pyramids when seen 
from Cairo. As you draw near, however, they seem to 
diminish in size, and it is only when you reach their base they 
once more strike you with their immence proportions. 

Arriving, you are at once surrounded by the Bedouins, who, 
by the way, seem to be about the brightest and most intel- 
lectual of all the people of Egypt. They are good natured, 
and were they not so importunate in their clamor for " Back- 
sheesh " they would be very agreeable. They are evidently 



204 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

splendid judges of human nature, and can tell a man's nation- 
ality at once. In this they are like the donkey-boys of Cairo. 
When they want to have Bros. Errett, Moore, Toof or myself 
ride, they invariably approach us with the expression, " Have 
a donkey ? Good donkey ; Yankee Doodle donkey ; Buffalo 
Bill donkey; Black Diamond donkey," and kindred names of 
excite our patriotism. To an Englishman it will be "Glad- 
stone donkey," and to a German, " Bismarck donkey, " They 
rarely make a mistake in judgment. Our arrangements called 
for two men (and three if required). I, however, thought two 
of them as many as I could manage, and so allowed myself to 
be marched off, the first to begin the ascent. As we approached 
the first layer of stone, the most intelligent of the two took me 
by the arm and confidentially said, ' ' My name Abdul. You Yan- 
kee Doodle. Abdul good guide No. i. You good climber No. 
I. Abdul make you satisfied going up ; you make him satisfied 
when we come down. You understand?" Yes. " All right, 
Yankee Doodle," and up we started. The ascent is not so bad 
as that of Vesuvius, but is dangerous enough to possess great 
interest,, especially to people who are at all "giddy-headed." 
The only safe way is never to look down till you reach the 
summit. A gentleman tried, only a few weeks since, to make 
the ascent without help, and was killed. The guide said, " He 
look like mummy when we get him." The view from the 
summit was very grand, but not so good as that from the cita- 
del. I think there is such a thing as getting too high to enjoy 
a good view. This I took to be the reason why our view from 
the pyramids was not satisfactory, for it was an ideal day, and 
there was nothing else to disturb our vision. You can see the 
Nile, the Minarets of Cairo, the plain where the French de- 
feated the Mamelukes, the site of Memphis, the great 
African desert, and a multitude of tombs stretched all around. 
Of course we were besieged by all the Arabs to make up a 
purse of three shillings, for which one of them would run down 
Cheops and up Chephrenes, the second in size, in ten minutes. 
It was easily performed, and, in fact, with a little practice, I 
have no doubt I could do it in the same time myself, though I 
wasted no time in experimenting. 



OUT OF EGYPT. 



205 



The descent of the pyramid is much slower than going up, 
and requires a steady head, for part of the time you must 
necessarily look down. About forty feet from the base on the 
north side is the entrance to the interior. This is more diffi- 




SARCOPHAGUS OF MENKERA. 

Found in the tomb of that king at Ghizeh. 



cult than going up. It is rendered very unpleasant by the foul 
air within, the dust that has accumulated for centuries, and the 
heat. Persons having a tendency to apoplexy should never 
try it. Bro. Moore was very much overcome by it, and, to 
make the matter worse, struck his head violently against the 
granite wall as he started out of the King's Chamber. It was 
with difficulty he was gotten out, and for twenty-four hours he 
was much prostrated by it. From the pyramid of Cheops we 
went to look at the sphynx, which is so familiar to the reader 
that I shall not describe it. The temple of the sphynx, near 
by, is one of the finest specimens of masonry I ever saw. 
Everybody that visits the pyramids is supposed to form a the- 
ory about them. The reader is familiar with the theories of 
Prof Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal of Scotland ; Proctor, 
the astronomer of our country, and Seiss, of Philadelphia. It 
may be that I am too much inclined to follow in beaten paths, 
but the only possible theory to my mind is that they are colos- 
sal tombs. Recent excavations have demonstrated that the 
whole country west of the Nile and east of the Lybian Moun- 
tains was once a vast necropolis, extending from Ghizeh on the 
north to Memphis and Sakkara. I think the pyramids were 



2o6 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

designed simply for burial-places and monuments of the 
builders. 

Speaking of Memphis reminds me that one of the most 
enjoyable of all our days in Egypt was the day we visited 
Memphis and the Sakkara pyramids. We took Thos. Cook & 
Sons' Nile steamer at 8 a. m., and proceeded up fifteen miles 
to Bedrashen, where, on landing, we found about lOO donkey- 
boys and donkeys awaiting our arrival. As there were only 
about sixty-five in our party, there was a great scramble for 
riders. As soon as a boy would get his man (or woman) seated 
he would start off in a hurry for fear that something might 
happen and he would lose him. They would thus separate hus- 
band and wife, friends and all. It was one grand steeple-chase 
for the stopping-place, M. Mariette's house. It was amusing 
to me to see the stately and lordly editor of the Christian 
Standard, and also the tall figure of W. T. Moore, seated astride 
donkeys not much over three feet high, holding on for dear 
life, while the boys behind were goading the patient little ani- 
mals into a gallop across the ruins of Egypt's ancient glory. 
Having a very good donkey, I was not allowed to enjoy this 
view very long, but soon found myself far ahead and near the 
front of the procession, which was about one mile long. It is 
seven miles from the landing to the Step Pyramid. This dis- 
tance we made in an hour, all arriving safely, but not without 
some amusing mishaps. Several young ladies fell off their 
donkeys, and likewise a number of gentlemen. As we neared 
the stopping-place, there was some little anxiety expressed as 
to who should be the first to set foot in the house. The oppor- 
tunity evidently lay between Rev. Mr. Morgan, of Moline, 111,, 
a young German artist, and the writer. Mr. Morgan had the 
best donkey, the young artist was very light, and I, in order 
to keep even, had to subsidize my donkey-boy. About a 
quarter of a mile from the goal we three broke into a full gallop 
down a sand hill. We had not yet reached the bottom of the 
hill when the artist's donkey stumbled and fell, scattering 
artist, pencils and brushes in every direction. The field was 
then left to Morgan and myself. It was not long before our 
donkey-boys had a little conversation, and I saw there was 



OUT OF EGYPT. 



207 




THE BULL APIS. 



going to be some "jockeying" done. Morgan's boy almost 
immediately gave out and mine applied himself with redoubled 
vigor. Morgan made a desperate effort to do his own whip- 
ping, but it was a failure, and when he arrived at the door he 
found this scribe smiling him a welcome. In Kentucky we 
used to say that " Money makes the mare go." But in Egypt 
** Money makes the donkey go." 

The first place we 
visited was the Apis 
Tombs, the burial- 
place of the sacred 
bulls. These bulls 
were associated with 
the moon, which 
seemed to undergo 
daily change without 
being destroyed. The 
time allotted to their 
life was twenty five 
years, and when it expired they were drowned in the Nile, and 
conveyed to their resting-places in these tombs. This was the 
custom, but tv/o or three exceptions have been found where 
they lived twenty-six years. There are sixty-four of these 
vaults now accessible. They were begun under Psammetlikh 
I., and continued till the last of the Ptolemies. The chambers 
are about 10 feet in width and 17% feet in height. Twenty-four 
of the huge coffins remain. They are 13 feet in length, 7 feet 
in width, and 1 1 feet in heighth, and weigh no less than sixty 
five Ions each. When discovered they had all been emptied 
of their contents. The most instructive relics found here were 
the small votive tablets called " Apis Steles." They were pre- 
sented by the pilgrim worshipers within seventy days from the 
death of the bull. They were found in great numbers in these 
vaults, and have furnished some of the most va.luable informa- 
tion regarding the dynasties and reigns of the Egyptian kings. 
The ceremonies accompanying the burial of the bulls were so 
costly and grand as to rival the burial of modern kings and 
emperors, Diodorus says. The chief priest of an Apis bull, 



208 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



in the reign of one of the Ptolemies, spent no less than ^^iio,- 
ooo upon its burial. M. Mariette, the discoverer, says, con. 
cerning the tombs : 




CAMFiNSES KILLS THE APIS - Drawii by H Vogel. 

"I confess that when I penetrated for the first time, on the 
1 2th of November, 1881, mto the Apis vaults, I was so pro- 
foundly struck with astonishment that the feeling is still fresh 



OUT OF EGYPT. 20g 

in my mind, although five years have elapsed since then. 
Owing to some chance, which it is difficult to account for, a 
chamber which had been walled up in the 30th year of the reign 
of Rameses II. had escaped the notice of the plunderers of 
the vaults, and I was so fortunate as to find it untouched. Al- 
though 3,700 years had elapsed since it was closed, everything 
in the chamber seemed to be precisely in its original condition. 
The finger-marks of the Egyptian who had inserted the last 
stone in the wall built to conceal the doorway, were still recog- 
nizable on the lime. There were also marks of naked feet im- 
printed on the sand which lay in one corner of the tomb 
chamber." 

When Cambyses, the Persian successor of Cyrus, came to 
the throne, he made war upon Egypt, because Amasis, the 
Egyptian king, had deceived him by palming off upon him an 
ordinary Egyptian maiden for a wife, as his own daughter. 
Having conquered the land, he proposed to overthrow its re- 
ligion and replace it with ^Zoroastrianism. He sent for the 
royal Apis to be brought into his presence, and proceeded to 
kill him forthwith. He made faces at the other gods and then 
destroyed them, which so terrified the Egyptians that for a 
long time they remained the uncomplaining vassals of the Per- 
sian Empire. 

We next visited the Mastaba (or tomb chamber) of Ti. It 
is covered with sand on the exterior, but the interior is filled 
with paintings and hieroglyphics which are remarkably distinct 
and sharp in their outline and coloring when we consider that 
they belong to the fifth dynasty and reach back to a date 4,500 
years ago. Mr. Ti seems to have been one of the common 
people, but rose to the highest office of the land except sover- 
eign. He was "Prime Minister," "Master of Secrets," 
"President of the Gate of the Palace," "Secret Counselor of 
the king in all his royal assemblies," and "enthroned in the 
heart of his lord." His wife was a member of the royal family 
and his sons were "princes " in consequence of the high rank 
of their mother. There is a picture of all his family upon the 
wall, and the many pictures of himself are alike and also ex- 
actly conform to some statues of himself, so there can be no 



2IO 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



doubt but these pictures exhibit himself and family as faithfully 
as it is in the power of the artist to do it. Another very in- 
teresting place is the Mastaba of Ptah-hotep, who was a con- 




MUMMY OF RAMESEs II. — Front vie\ 



temporary of li. Their clothing is of the same style and 
make. Their houses show their different occupations in the 



OUT OF EGYPT, 211 

various pictures which adorn the walls. The latter gentleman 
was a great hunter and fisher. The fishing and fowling scenes 
are exceptionally fine. He was also a great fancier of poultry. 
If the inscriptions are to be believed, Ptah-hotep possessed 
121,000 geese of one kind and 1 1,2 lo of another, 1,225 swans, 
120,000 small geese, 121,022 pigeons, 1 1 1,200 goslings. 

But having had some experience with hunters and fisher- 
men of modern times, I would suggest to the reader to cut 
down that claim quite largely before it is allowed. But prob- 
ably the most interesting thing at Sakkara is the great Step 
Pyramid. The age of this structure can not be ascertained 
with definite clearness. Those who follow the Egyptian his- 
torian Manetho, who is probably as good authority as we 
have, place the date of its construction in the reigns of Unen- 
ephes, a king of the ist dynasty. If this be true, it is the 
oldest structure in the world. The peculiarity of this Pyramid 
is that it is oblong and therefore its various sides are un- 
equal. About 250 paces to the southwest of the Step Pyramid 
is the Pyramid of King Unas, which was opened in 1881 
by Messrs. Cook and sons. The interior contains two large 
chambers and a smaller one, the former with a lofty pointed 
roof, and the latter with a low flat one. The two large cham- 
bers contain numerous funeral inscriptions in a fine state of 
perservation. The granite sarcophagus of the king, who was 
a member of the 5 th Dynasty, stands in the second chamber 
close to the wall. The walls are of oriental alabaster, and are 
adorned with highly colored paintings. After examining the 
latter Pyramid we started on our return journey. Not being in 
such a race, we had time to stop and examine the ruins of 
ancient Memphis. They are very extensive, and lie in a grove 
of stately palms. They are now despoiled of all their stone 
and marble, which has been taken away to different points. 
The huge Nile mud bricks which formed the interior of the 
buildings, are still to be seen. The only object of great interest 
remaining is the colossal statue of Rameses II,, which lies face 
downward in a cavity. It is made of hard and close ground 
limestone, and before it was injured stood forty-two feet in 
height. It stood in the entrance of the court before the temple 



212 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



of Ptah. We arrived at our boat about 4 p. m. ; we reached 
Cairo in time for dinner at 7 p. m. , having spent one of the 
most enjoyable days in our pilgrimage. 




MUMMY OF RAMESES II. — Side view. 



Our last day in the city was devoted largely to the museum 
at Boulac. The center of attraction there was the lately un- 



OUT OF EGYPT, 



213 



rolled mummy of Rameses 11. , the great warrior — the Sesostris 

of the Greeks and the Pharaoh of the Bible. As we gazed 

upon the perfect features, and even the 

hair, nails, teeth and skin of one upon 

whose face Moses looked, we were 

brought nearer to the great lawgiver of 

Israel than we had ever been before. It 

seems as though God has been reserving 

his grandest testimonies for truth till the 

spirit of scientific unbelief has ripened to 

perfection, before presenting them. The 

great warrior lies in state by the side of 

Seti, his predecessor, who was scarcely 

less distinguished ; but as so much has 

lately been written upon them, our 

readers need no description of them. 

The Museum is divided into the fol- 
lowing rooms, or saloons : Historical, 
east, west and center ; The Ancient Em- 
pire ; Funereal; the Royal Mummies; 
Graeco-Roman. 

In all these salles are cases lettered, 
and nearly always taking up the entire 
alphabet, filled with images, beetles and 
jewelry of ancient Egypt. Those most 
frequently met with are Osiris, Isis and 
Horus. The latter was the child of the 
former, and represented the Nile. He is horus. 

said to have been born with his finger in his mouth, and to 
have led a very quiet life. There is no record of his ever hav- 
ing been married. 

In .the afternoon we took a drive out the Shoubra road, 
which leads to the Khedivial Palace. It is a broad, handsome 
street, overshadowed by sycamores and Egyptian acacias, and 
on Fridays presents a lively appearance, as that is the fashion- 
able day for driving. The unveiled ladies of the European 
residents and the scarcely less veiled beauties of the Carro 
harems mingle together in lovely profusion. We passed a 




214 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



carriage with several of the latter, whom our guide informed 
us were the Khedive's "sweethearts," a soft name for 
concubine. 




" SWEETHEART. 



We left Cairo yesterday, March 8th, at noon, and reached 
Ismailla at 5 p. m., passing en route the ruins of the ancient Bu- 
bastis, Pithom and Rameses, all of which are in the land of 
Goshen, and are at present attracting attention because of their 
connection with Joseph and his posterity while in Egypt. At 



OUT OF EGYPT. 215 

5 P. M. we Started for Port Said on a special steam launch char- 
tered for our journey. We had not gone more than half way 
when we were startled by a sudden shock, followed by a trem- 
bhng of our vessel and its entire stoppage. Looking forward 
we observed a cloud of dust and black smoke ascending, and 
the first impression upon all minds was that our vessel had ex- 
ploded its boiler. Running forward, we were just in time to 
see the two parts of an Arab sail vessel, laden with coal, go 
down, and the sailors climb up out of it and get upon some 
fragments, from which they were rescued. We had cut their 
ship entirely in two. The poor fellows were scared almost to 
death, and chattered away in Arabic like monkeys. Only a 
short time before, Bro. Moore and myself had been standing in 
the prow of our vessel, but had just gone " aft. " Two gentle- 
men standing there when it occurred came near losing their 
lives, as a large part of the ship's deck was thrown upon ours. 
They were hit by some of the splinters, but fortunately not 
hurt. Our ship was injured by the collision and took water 
rapidly, so much so, the captain had to make great holes in the 
cabin floor and let the water into the "bilge," from whence 
it was pumped into our boiler and used for steam. If we could 
not have done this, our ship would not have been able to make 
her port. This is the only thing in the nature of an accident 
that has thus far occurred. We can not say that we were 
wrecked, but we passed through one. We leave Port Said this 
afternoon for Jaffa. 

Farewell Egypt ! land of ancient pomp and pride, 

Where Beauty walks by hoary Ruin's side ; 

Where plenty reigns, and still the Seasons smile, 

And rolls — rich gift of God — exhaustless Nile ; 

Land of the pyramid and temple lone ! 

Where fame, a star, on earth's dark midnight shone ; 

Bright seat of wisdom, graced with arts and arms, 

Ere Rome was built, or smiled fair Athens' charms ; 

What owes the past, the living world, to thee ? 

All that refines, sublimes humanity. 

The tall papyrus whispering seems to say, 

Here rose the letters Cadmus bore away ; 

The Greek to thee his Jove and Bacchus owes, 

With many a tale that charms, and thought that glows. 



2l6 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



In thy famed schools the Samian learnt his lore. 
That souls, though wandering, lived for evermore. 
The giant structures piled on Ghizeh's plain 
Speak of the sages watching heaven's bright train, 
Who first, years — months divided — traced afar 
The comet's course, and named each glittering star. 




PORT SAID TO JERUSALEM. 

While our steamer was loading at Port Said, we found am- 
ple time to look over the city and study the great variety of 
peoples that is to be found there. It is made up of Egyptians, 
Turks, East Indians, together with Greeks and all other Euro- 
peans. While lying at anchor, two little Arab boys approached 
our steamer in a skiff, and, speaking in broken English, asked 
the party to throw some coins into the water, at the same time 
one of them taking off his "clothes," which consisted of a 
long shirt. By the time the passengers could get their coins 
out, he was ready, and when a coin was thrown toward him, 
he would make a dive for where it sank, and invariably brought 
it up. This was kept up till he grew quite cold. At last some 
one fooled the little fellow by throwing in a cheap copper coin. 
Rising out of the water with chattering teeth and injured look, 
he yelled out, ' ' No copper !" and the entertainment stopped. 

We proceeded via Austrian Lloyd's steamer to Jaffa. The 
steamer was very much crowded, as the pilgrims were begin- 
ning to go to Jerusalem for Easter. A large number of them 
were Russians, and as they traveled what we call "steerage," 
they presented a sorry aspect. Old men and women, boys, 
girls, and babies, all mixed together, very much as one will see 
emigrants around our large stations in the West. Many persons 
who had paid first-class fare were obliged to put up with what 
they could get. Our berths, however, had been engaged for 
weeks, and we had no trouble. 

Just as the morning sun was rising we sighted Joppa and 
the coast of Palestine. A great many persons went into the 
usual and proper ecstasies over the " Holy Land ," but, strange 
to say, the American pilgrims evinced no unusual emotion, but 
quietly partook of our breakfast before going aloft to take a 
look. If there is anything for which an American traveler is 



2l8 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



peculiar, it is his propensity for a good "square " meal for 
breakfast, which, with all Old World people,, is a very slight 
affair. 

In Winter or early Spring it is very difficult to land here. 
New comers often have to perform quarantine. We were 
greatly blessed in the ease with which we effected a landing. 




The sea was running pretty high, but we had no difficulty 
in landing, though our little boat wa-S tossed up and down like 
a chip by the breakers. The harbor of Jaffa is surrounded by 
large rocks that emerge above the level, and against which the 
waves break with great furry. There is one narrow space in the 
reefs through which boats can paas, if they strike the wave 



PORT SAID TO JERUSALEM. 2lg 

right. We found landaus at the wharf — a dilapidated structure 
made of stones from the ruins of Caesarea — awaiting our arrival, 
by which we were conveyed to the Jerusalem Hotel, kept by 
the American Consular agent — Mr. Hard-Egg. 

The hotel was originally brought over in shell from Maine, 
by a society of Americans, who came expecting the Second 
Advent, and built houses outside the town. It proved — like all 
other such schemes — a failure. Only a few of the party re- 
mained, the rest returning to Maine as soon after the breaking 
up of the community as they could command the means. A 
German colony took possession and are now making a success 
of it, verifying the old adage that a German will make a living 
where an American would starve. 

Jaffa has a population of 20,000, and is situated upon a 
conically-shaped promontory, one hundred and fifty feet high, 
washed on three sides by the sea. 

Seen at a distance, it presents a very beautiful and pictur- 
esque appearance, with its towers and minarets standing 
amidst the palm trees and rising out of the orange orchards and 
fruit gardens. But when you enter the city, you find it like 
all other Oriental places — an assembly of dismal houses, poor 
bazaars, and dirty, winding lanes, or alleys. Its chief support 
is from the pilgrims traveling to and from Jerusalem. It, how- 
ever, has some trade in soap, oranges, silk, oil and sacred 
relics. It was subjected to a severe earthquake about fifty 
years since, which destroyed several thousand people. It being 
Sunday morning when we arrived, we had a social meeting in 
the parlors of the hotel, which was attended by about twenty- 
five persons. Bro. Errett conducted it, and a number of fer- 
vent prayers were offered, songs sung, and speeches made. 
There was a general feeling ot thankfulness to God for the safe 
journey we had made, and every one seemed to be in the true 
spirit of worship After dinner we took a drive over the city, 
which possesses few attractions. Of course we were shown the 
rock to which Andromeda was chained to be devoured by the 
sea monster, and from whence delivered by Perseus. . We were 
shown the house of Simon the tanner, where Peter lodged, and 
where lie had the glorious vision from God which prepared him 



220 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

to open the door of faith to the Gentiles. Looking from that 
house-top at the city and the sea, it seems to me no fitter spot 
could have been chosen for the transaction. 

Dean Stanley said of this place: "One of the locaHties 
which can claim to represent an historical scene of the New 
Testament, is the site of the house of Simon, the tanner, at 
Jaffa. The house itself is a comparatively modern building, 
with no pretensions to interest or antiquity. The outer door 
is from the street in which stand the Latin and Armenian con- 
vents, but no church or convent appears to have been built on 
the site, and no other place is shown as such. The house is 
occupied by Mussulmans, and is regarded by them as sacred. 
A small m.osque, or praying place, is in one of the rooms, which 
is said by the occupants to commemorate the fact that ' The 
Lord Jesus here asked God for a meal, and the table came 
down at once,' a remarkable instance of the vulgar corruption 
of miracles so common in Mussulman traditions, and, in this 
case, curious as an evident confusion of the Mohammedan ver- 
sion of the Feeding of the Five Thousand with the vision of . 
Peter. Such a tradition, even from the fact of its distortion, 
and from its want of European sanction, has some claim to be 
heard. And this claim is remarkably confirmed by the circum- 
stances of the situation. The house is ' close on the sea 
shore ;' the waves beat against the low wall of its court-yard- 
In the court-yard is a spring of fresh water, such as must always 
have been needed for the purposes of tanning, and which, 
though now no longer used, is authentically reported to have 
been so used in a tradition which describes the premises to 
have long beeii employed as a tannery. It is curious that 
two other celebrated localities may be identified in the same 
manner. One is in Jerusalem. At the southern end of the 
Church of the Sepulcher stood the palace of the Knights of St. 
John. When Saladin took the Holy City, it is said that he de- 
termined to render the site of the place forever contemptible, 
by turning it into a tannery. And a tannery still remains, 
with its offensive sights and smells, amongst what are the un 
doubted remains af that ancient home of European chivalry. 
Another case is nearer home. Every one knows the story of 



PORT SAID TO JERUSALEM. 221 

the parentage of William the Conqueror; how his father, 
under the romantic diffs of Faloise, saw Arlette among the 
tanneries. There, again, the tanneries still take advantage of 
the running streams which creep aro^und the foot of the rock, 
living memorials of the ancient story. The rude staircase to 
the roof of the modern house — flat now as of old — leads us to 
the view which gives all that is needed for the accompaniments 
of the hour. There is the wide noonday heaven above ; in 
front is the long, bright sweep of the Mediterranean Sea, its 
nearer waves broken by the reefs famous in ancient Gentile 
legends as the rocks of Andromeda. Fishermen are standing 
and wading amongst them — such as might have been there of 
old, recalling to the apostle his long-forgotten nets by the lake 
of Gennesareth, the first promise of his future call to be a fisher 
of men." 

From the House of Simon, we proceeded direct to the 
English church, where the regular service was conducted by 
the resident minister. His wife — a cultivated English lady — 
sat near the pulpit with her little daughter and son, aged re- 
spectively about ten and seven years, who seemed to pay the 
most devout attention to their father's words. The scene so 
forcibly reminded me of a similar wife and children and preach- 
er's home in the far western world, that I was forced to let the 
preacher go on with his sermon and try my best to privately 
settle one of those heartaches that will come to the wanderer 
away from home ; and dispose of a little salt-water spray cast 
up from the heart's fountain, and that would "slop over" in 
spite of all my will-power. After the services were over, we 
were invited to take a stroll through the orange and lemon 
groves near the town. The oranges were loading down the 
trees with golden weights, and appeared upon the average to 
be at least one-half larger than Florida oranges, but lacked 
greatly the rich flavor of the Southern fruit. We afterwards 
ate some that were grown at Tyre, that were far superior to 
those at JafiTa. 

Just before sundown we sauntered down to the sea-shore, a 
little north of the House of Simon, and saw the sunset over 
the waters. Little boys were gathering up the richly-colored 



222 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

shells thrown on the beach by the tide and left there when it 
had retreated. As I looked out over the wide expanse of 
" The Great Sea," I felt great sympathy with the old lady who 
exclaimed, with her first view of the ocean, that she was glad 
she had " seen something there was enough of" The sun was 
going down towards the deep, and his fingers of Hght and 
beauty were toying with the manes of the foaming steeds of 
the sea as they raced onward in their swift course to fret 
themselves into froth at our feet. It was a time for mem- 
ory and imagination. I could close my eyes and behold the 
traditional and historic past in panoramic procession. From 
the summit of the cape, I could see the great ark of God float- 
ing away, bearing in its bosom the family of Noah. I could 
see the division made, and Joppa apportioned unto the tribe of 
Dan. O'er these same foaming waves the magnificent rafts of 
pine and cedar wood were sent and moored at the "moon- 
pool" south of the town. Years after, a similar cargo was 
sent for the same purpose to this same place. As those Arabs 
go out of the roadstead in their little sloop with its lateen-sail,. 
I fancy they have on board Jonah, who, fleeing "from the 
presence of the Lord, went down to Joppa, and he found a 
ship going to Tarshish." Out upon these same waters the 
apostle looked, when he had the remarkable vision which for- 
ever broke down the distinction between Jew and Gentile. 
This was probably Peter's first view of the great, broad sea. 
He had been used to the little Jewish sea of Galilee, hemmed 
in by Jewish mountains, and forming a fit place to encourage 
Jewish prejudices ; but now there stretched out before him a 
view, the like of which he had never seen, and by the natural 
breadth of his surroundings he was prepared for the supernat- 
ural lesson upon the breadth of God's purposes. 

There is many a narrow-minded bigot who is so, simply be- 
cause he has never seen much of the world. There is nothing 
so good for such as a sight of " The Great Sea" of humanity. 
But I close my eyes, and the scene again discloses Judas Mac- 
cabeus making war upon the place, destroying the shipping, 
and drowning the sailors, to avenge a similar crime perpetrated 
upon the Joppan Jews. Again, I see it opening its gates to 



PORT SAID TO JERUSALEM. 225 

Pompey, after which it becomes a haunt of pirates, for which 
it is again destroyed by Vespasian. During the Crusades, it 
is taken and retaken both by Christian and Paynim, and in 
the thirteenth century it has again become a waste. But per- 
haps the most wicked transaction ever performed at Jaffa, was 
the shooting upon this same beach, of four thousand Albanian 
soldiers who had surrended to one of Napoleon's generals, as 
honorable prisoners of war, and who was forced to violate his 
promise of protection at the dictate of Napoleon. 

If his historians can be relied upon, it was here that Napo- 
leon showed the most diabolical trait of his life of iniquity. 
When about to leave the place, he ordered the sick and lame 
to be poisoned. His chief medical officer refused to carry out 
the order, saying, ' ' Sire, it is my mission to preserve, not to 
destroy, life." They were nevertheless poisoned — 500 of them 
— rather than burden the retreat with them. 

There are three mosques in Joppa, and one large fountain, 
around which the women meet in large numbers to draw water 
and gabble. They are dressed wretchedly, and I thought if 
Dorcas were alive to-day, she could find a grand field in Joppa 
for the exercise of her good deeds. 

The next morning we were to select our horses for the long 
tour in the country, and as our party numbered about twenty- 
five, each was anxious to get a good one, as the safety of the 
journey largely depends upon getting a good, steady-footed 
animal, that will not stumble. When the animals were brought 
into the hotel yard, there was a general rush for them. The 
last brought in were two beautiful iron-greys, richly caparisoned 
with Bedouin trappings, but mounted with fine new English 
saddles. It was easy to be seen that they were the pick of the 
herd. The Jaffa agent explained that they were the two best 
hoses in the lot, but their temper was exceedingly bad, a rep- 
utation they were then busily at work to confirm, by biting and 
kicking at everything that came within reach. The crowd 
gradually thinned out around them, leaving no one but Bro. 
Moore and myself, both old Kentuckians, and therefore fond 
of a "fine hoss." Finally Bro. Moore looked at me with one 
of those droll drops of the eyelids so characteristic of himself, 



226 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

and said, " Bro. Sweeney, I think we can manage these 
fellows." That settled the matter, and we were soon in the 
saddle. It was not more than six hours till the entire party 
were unanimously surprised to think that they had overlooked 
the fact that the safest place about a vicious horse is on his 
back. From that hour we were kings of the road, and it was 
the prime effort of all to keep out of our way. Bro. Toof and 
ladies, together with Bro. Errett, chose to go up to Jerusalem 
in a landau, and obtain horses there. From Joppa to Jerusa- 
lem is nearly forty miles, or thirteen hours' ride. 

For about two miles our way led through a paradise of 
lernon, orange and fig gardens, surrounded by cactus hedges, 
till we reached a fountain, which our guide gravely informed us 
was the grave of Dorcas. I suppose he meant it was the place 
that would have been her grave if Peter had not restored her 
to life. But a little detail like that does not bother a drago- 
man. His object is to impress the traveler, and he leaves to 
others to arrange slight historic details. Emerging from 
the gardens, the beautiful Plain of Sharon is spread out be- 
fore us. It was once renowned for its fertility and beauty. 
It is now much neglected, but looks as fine as any of our 
Western prairies. The anemone, cyclamen and "rose of 
Sharon " border the roads, and peep out everywhere from the 
grasses. Had the fellaheen who cultivate it the protection of 
a good government, it would soon rival any of our Western 
plains ; but they are robbed systematically by the government, 
and unsystematically by the Bedouin tribes from the south, 
who invade it at harvest time, and capture the grain as it lies 
upon the threshing-floor. 

At noon of the first day we arrived at Ramleh, the only 
place of any size on the route. Tradition tells us that it cor- 
responds with the ancient Aramathea, and the house of Joseph 
is still pointed out. It has a population of 5,000 people, a 
good hotel, kept by a German- American, from Buffalo, N. Y., 
soap factories, churches and ruined buildings. Lydda, the 
place where Peter healed Eneas, is about two miles to the 
north. After dinner we visited it, but found nothing but an 
old Greek Church, in the crypt of which tradition says St. 



PORT SAID TO JERUSALEM. 



22/ 



George, the patron saint of England, lies buried. This same 
George was a wonderful sort of person. I have heard, ever 
since my boyhood, of "St. George and the Dragon." I had 
also heard that he killed the Dragon, but how, when, or 
Avhere, I have never been able to learn. I have asked every 
Englishman of our party, but am none the wiser yet. 

Returning to Ramleh, we ascended the only object of at- 
traction in the town — an old tower called by various names, as 
White Mosque, White Tower, Tower of Forty Martyrs, Etc. 
The Christians say, in the huge vaults filled with bats and rep- 
tiles, that lie at the foot of the tower, are the remains of forty 
martyrs to Christ, while the Arabs repeat the story with the 
variations in favor of Mohammedanism. 

The tower is ascended by 
one hundred and twenty 
steps of a spiral stairway 
Out of the crevices in the 
stone little shrubs are grow- 
ing, and at times the way 
seems dangerous. From the 
summit of the tower we en- 
joyed another gorgeous sun- 
set view — one of the finest 
we had in the country 
Several times we tried to 
describe it to friends, but all 
the v.^hile conscious of our 
failure. Since returning 
home, I have read Thomp- 
son's description, which 
comes so nearly to the ideal 
that we give it : "The view 
from the top of the tower is 
inexpressibly grand. The 
whole plain of Sharon, from the mountains of Judea and Sama- 
ria to the sea, and from the foot of Carmel to the sandy deserts 
of Philistia, Hes spread out like an illuminated map. Beautiful 
as vast, and diversified as beautiful, the eye is fascinated and 




TOWER OF THE FORTY. 



228 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

the imagination enchanted, especially when the last rays of the 
setting sun light up the white villages which sit or hang upon 
the many shaped declivities of the mountains. Then the 
lengthening shadows retreat over the plain and ascend the hill- 
sides, while all below fades out of view under the misty and 
mellow haze of summer's twilight. The weary reapers return 
from their toil, the flocks come peacefully to their folds, and 
the solemn hush of nature shutting up her manifold works and 
retiring to rest, all conspire to soothe the troubled heart into 
sympathetic repose. At such an hour I saw it once and again, 
and often lingered until the stars looked out from the deep sky, 
and the breezes of evening shed soft dews upon the feverish 
land. What a paradise was here, when Solomon reigned in 
Jerusalem and sung of the ' Roses of Sharon.' Better still will 
it be when he that is greater than Solomon shall sit on the 
throne of David his father, for ' the mountains shall bring 
peace to the people and the little hills, by righteousness. In 
his days shall the righteous flourish ; and abundance of peace 
so long as the moon endureth.' " 

Fly swifter round, ye wheels of time. 
And bring the promised day. 

Leaving Ramleh early next morning, we passed over the re- 
maining portion of the plain and reached the foot-hills of the Ju- 
dean mountains. Every turn of the road seemed to illustrate some 
old famihar passage of the Scriptures. Over in a field near us is 
a man plowing ; his plow is made of two poles, which cross each 
other at the ends next the ground. One pole is fastened to the 
yoke, and is used for drawing, the other is used by the driver as a 
plowshare at one end, and a handle at the other. Only one handle 
reminds us of the Saviour's words : "No man having put his 
hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of 
heaven." In his other hand he carries a long spear, or goad, 
for " touching up " the oxen. It is useless for the ox to try 
to kick, for it only hurts him the worse. " It is hard for thee 
to kick against the goads." " Shamgar, the son of Anath, 
slew six hundred men with an ox-goad." The very land which 
the man is plowing has no fence nor hedge. A few heaps of 



PORT SAID TO JERUSALEM. 



229 



stones mark out his boundary. I could move his entire landmark 
in half an hour, but I should bring upon my head the curse sent 
down upon him "that removeth his neighbor's landmark." 
Thus the habits, customs and practices of the people of Pales- 
tine to-day, are living witnesses to the faithfulness of the Sa- 
cred Word. 




o;5(s\^ f^ 










PLOUGHING. 



About an hour from Ramleh we ascended a small hill, 
and as we stood upon the eminence the valley of Ajalon, 
ever memorable as the scene of Joshua's great victory, burst 
upon our view. I could almost hear the command, "Sun, 
stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou, moon, in the valley 
of Ajalon, and the sun stood still, and the moon stayed until 
the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies." 
From this eminence we could look toward our left and see the 
two Bethhorons, while upon our right lay the recently identi- 
fied sit of Gezer. 

The king of Gezer was defeated by Joshua, but not being 
dispossessed of its original inhabitants, it remained a strong 
fortress of the Philistines for several centuries. David once in- 
vaded it, and it was at last captured by Pharoah, who gave it 
to his son-in-law, Solomon (I. Kings ix. 15). The recent 
discoveries here by M. Ganneau, have helped to settle several 
important points of dispute. 

After crossing the valley of Ajalon we came to Latrun, the 



230 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE, 

traditional home of the penitent thief. Near Latrun is Amwas 
or Emmaus. (Not the Emmaus of the New Testament.) 
Brother Moore and myself made a detour to reach it, and 
found some quite interesting ruins. The church here is one of 
the oldest in Palestine, though but little of it now remains. 




Amwas answers in Roman history to Nicopolis. Still continu- 
ing among the rocky ravines, we rode to Kirjath-jearim, where 
the Ark of God was lodged in the house of Abinadab, till 
David moved it to Jerusalem. This is also said to be the site of 
Anathoth, where the prophet Jeremiah was born. Not long 
ago it was the headquarters of Abou-Gosh, the greatest robber 
chief in Palestine, who levied blackmail upon all travellers to 
Jerusalem. Upon one occasion he fell upon a party of monks 
and stifled them to death in an oven. About thirty years ago 
the band was seized and transported, but their descendants 
still live in the village, and are perhaps as honest as their 
neighbors around about, which in my opinion is no great rec- 
ommendation. 

To the north about four miles is Neby Samwil, where the 
prophet Samuel was buried. It is the ancient Mizpeh. About 
half an hour farther on is the valley of Kolonieh, into which the 



PORT SAID TO JERUSALEM. 23 1 

road descends by some serpentine courses, as fine as can be 
found in Switzerland. To the right is Ain Karirn, which is 
the traditional birth-place of John the Baptist. At the bottom 
of the valley is a little brook which we crossed, and where the 
relic hunters gathered up stones from the place where David 
killed Goliah. Our party gathered no stones, because we felt 
that the spot did not fill the Scripture narrative. 

From Kolonieh to Jerusalem is about one and one-half 
hours, most of the way up hill. As we toiled up the hill our 
minds were busy with past memories. Along the road we 
travelled, the cedars from which the temple of Solomon was 
built, were all carried. Along it the Ark of God was borne in 
triumph to Mt. Zion. Somewhere along the route Christ 
joined the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. From age 
to age thousands of Israelites have gone up here to the solemn 
feasts at Jerusalem ; and in after times these barren regions 
echoed to the tramp of Roman legions, and the war cry of the 
Crusaders. When we came to the top of the ridge the glori- 
ous sight of the Holy City met our gaze. Rising in the 
midst of a hilly country, the gray walls, towers and domes 
stand out against the clear sky, while the mountains of Mo.ab 
lie far beyond in the hazy distance. A pale, unnatural tint over- 
cast the whole scenery of the place. Ramparts, towers and 
mosques were all of faded white, with no relief, not even in 
the ground, which offers nearly the same coloring. There was 
no stir, no noise, and but little vegetation. All was still as the 
tomb. The words of Jeremiah were brought forcibly to mind: 
*' How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people ! How 
is she become as a widow!" 



JERUSALEM. 

It is interesting to read the various descriptions of travelers 
entering the city, and note their diversity. This is probably 
accounted for by the different angles from which the first view 
is obtained. That coming from Damascus is inexpressibly 
grand, and the one via the Mount of Olives is also very fine, 
while the one from Joppa is very inferior. As illustrative of 
these impressions, we quote from Dr. Clarke, who entered via 
the Damascus road: "We had not been prepared for the 
grandeur of the spectacle which the city alone presented. In- 
stead of a wretched and ruined town, by some described as the 
desolated remnant of Jerusalem, we behold, as it were, a flour- 
ishing and stately metropolis,- presenting a magnificent assem- 
blage of domes, towers, and palaces." In opposition to the 
above, Sir Frederick Hennifer writes: "The streets of it are 
narrow and deserted ; the houses are dirty and ragged ; the 
shops few and forsaken ; and throughout the whole there is not 
one symptom of either commerce, comfort, or happiness. Is 
this the city that men call the Perfection of Beauty, the Joy of 
the whole earth ?" 

"Between these extremes," writes Dean Stanley, "thus 

Jerusalem is one of the few places of which the first impression 

is not the best. No doubt the first sight, the first moment 

when, from the ridge of the hills which divides the Valley of 

Rephaim from the Valley of Bethlehem, one sees the white 

line crowning the horizon, and knows that it is Jerusalem, is a 

moment never to be forgotten. But there is nothing in the 

view itself to excite your feelings, nor is there even when the 

Mount of Olives heaves in sight, nor when the horse's hoofs 

ring on the stones of the streets of Jerusalem, nor is there in 

the surrounding outline of hills on the distant horizon." 

We entered by the Joppa Gate, wiiich stands near the north- 
232 



JERUSALEM. 235 

west angle of the walls. It is an old, crusader-looking struc- 
ture, the stones of which are put together in a very unwork- 
manlike manner. Grasses and weeds grow out of the crevices 
in the wall, and the battlements at the top are entirely de- 
serted. It is about fifty feet high, forty feet wide and eighteen 
feet deep. There is a turn, to the left at right angles, imme 
diately after entering the outer portals. The doors are covered 
with stars and crescents and other emblems of the Turk. Only 
a little more than a block from the gate, is our stopping-place, 
the Mediterranean Hotel. Immediately opposite our front 
bed-room window, is the Tower of David — probably the only 
remaining building that stood in Jerusalem when Christ was on 
earth. 

It formed one of the towers of Herod's Palace, which stood 
on Mount Zion. It is all now buried under twenty-five feet of 
rubbish, except this tower. There were three of these towers, 
formed, as Josephus informs us, "of great blocks of white 
stone, so exactly joined together that each tower seemed a 
solid rock. " 

One of these Herod named in honor of Mariamne, his be- 
loved wife ; the other two were called Phasaelus and Hippicus 
— the former for his brother, Phasaelus, and the latter for his 
friend, Hippicus. The tower of David is most probably iden- 
tical with Phasaelus. It is the only one spared by order of 
Titus when he destroyed the city. Looking at its huge stones, 
it would seem to be almost an impossibility for an army unac- 
quainted with gunpowder to capture it. The tower forms part 
of the citadel, and the barracks lie south of it. They were 
built by Ibrahim Pasha, of Egypt, who dug down nearly 
seventy feet to go through the debris to solid rock, and was 
finally compelled to stop without reaching it. To the east of 
the tower stands the palace of the English Bishop and the 
American Consulate, now occupied by Col. Gilman, of Detroit, 
Mich., whom we found to be a clever and accommodating gen- 
tleman. He and his son board at our hotel, and the Colonel 
presides at the Table d' Hotc. 

Looking out from our rear windows, we see at our feet the 
Pool of Hezekiah, 144 feet wide by 240 long, and having 



236 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



only a foot or two of depth. It has a rock bottom, and is ce- 
mented. It is connected by an underground passage with the 
Upper Pool of Gihon, some seven hundred yards west and out- 
side the city walls. The Bible tells us that Hezekiah " digged 
the hard rock with iron, and made wells for water;" also "he 
made a pool and a conduit, and stopped the upper water course 
of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the 
city of David." This is evidently the pool that lies at our feet, 




POOL OF HEZEKIAH. 



and from which the Jewish ladies are constantly drawing water 
with little buckets, which they let down with ropes from 
bastion windows above. 

But it is now time for our first dinner in Jerusalem, and we 
are entirely ready for it. After a good dinner is nearly always 
a good time for reflection, and we find our minds reviewing the 
past history of this most wonderful city, sacred alike to Jew, 
Christian and Mohammedan ! We have in our possession a 



JERUSALEM. 23/ 

condensed history, the name of the writer being unknown, but 
for succinctness and brevity it can not be surpassed. 

The earhest name of Jerusalem appears to have been Jebus, 
or poetically, Salem, and its king in Abraham's time was Mel- 
chizedek. When the Hebrews took possession of Canaan, the 
city of Salem was burned, but the fortress remained in the 
hands of the Jebusites, till king David took it by storm and made 
it the capital of his kingdom. From that time it was called 
Jerusalem. During the reigns of David and Solomon it at- 
tained its highest degree of power. When ten of the Jewish 
tribes seceded under Jeroboam, they made Shechem (and later, 
Samaria) the capital of their kingdom of Israel, and Jerusalem 
remained the capital of the smaller but more powerful kingdom 
of Judah. The city was taken by Shishak, King of Egypt, in 
971 B. c. , was later conquered and sacked by Joash, King of 
Israel, and in the time of Ahaz, the King of Syria came against 
it with a large force, but could not take it. The city was be- 
sieged in Hezekiah's reign by the army of Sennacherib, King 
of Assyria, but was saved by a sudden destruction of the in- 
vading army. After the death of Josiah, the city was tributary 
for some years to the king of Egypt, but was taken after re- 
peated attempts by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar, in 
586, and was left a heap of ruins. The work of rebuilding it 
began by order of King Cyrus, about 538 b. c. , who allowed 
the Jewish people that had been carried into captivity to return 
for this purpose. From this time Jerusalem enjoyed compara- 
tive peace for several hundred years, and grew to be an impor- 
tant commercial city. When Alexander invaded Syria, it sub- 
mitted to him without resistance. After his death it belonged 
for a time to Egypt, and in 198 b. c. passed, with the rest of Judea, 
under the rule of Syria. Antiochus the Great ruled it with 
mildness and justice, but the tyranny of his son, Antiochus 
Epiphanes, brought about the revolt headed by the Maccabees, 
through which Jerusalem gained a brief independence. In 63, 
Pompey the Great took the city, demolished the walls and 
killed thousands of the people, but did not plutider it. How- 
ever, nine years later Crassus robbed the temple of all its 
treasures. The walls were soon after rebuilt under Antipater, 



238 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE, 

the Roman procurator, but when Herod came to rule over the 
city with the title of King, given him by the Roman Senate, 
he was resisted, and only took possession after an obstinate 
siege, which was followed by the massacre of great numbers of 
the people. Herod improved and enlarged the city, and re- 
stored the temple on a more magnificent scale than in Solomon's 
time. Jerusalem is said at this time to have had a population 
of over 200,000. This period of wealth and prosperity was 
also rendered most memorable for Jerusalem by the ministry 
and crucifixion of Christ. About a. d. 66, the Jews, goaded 
to desperation by the tyranny of the Romans, revolted, gar- 
risoned Jerusalem, and defeated a Roman army sent against 
them. This was the beginning of the disastrous war which 
ended with the destruction of the city. It was taken by Titus, 
in the year 70, after a long and vigorous siege ; all the inhab- 
itants were massacred or made prisoners, and the entire city 
left a heap of ruins. The Emperor Hadrian built on the site 
of Jerusalem a Roman city, under the name of Elia Capitolina, 
with a temple of Jupiter, and Jews were forbidden to enter the 
city under pain of death. Under Constantine it was made a 
place of pilgrimage for Christians, as the Emperor's mother 
Helena, had with much pains located the various sites of 
events in the history of Christ. The Emperor Julian, on the 
contrary, not only allowed the Jews to return to their city, but 
also made an attempt, which ended in failure, to rebuild their 
temple. In 614 the Persian Emperor Chosroes invaded the 
Roman Empire. The Jews joined his army, and after conquer- 
ing the northern part of Palestine, the united forces laid siege 
to and took Jerusalem. The Jews wreaked vengeance on the 
Christians for what they had been forced to endure, and 20,000 
people were massacred. The Persians held rule in the city for 
fourteen years ; it was then taken by the Romans again, but 
in 636 the Caliph Omar besieged it. After four months the 
city capitulated. It was under the rule of the Caliphs for 400 
years, until the Seljuk Turks, in 1077, invaded Syria and 
made it a province of their empire. Christian pilgrims had 
for many years kept up the practice of visiting the tomb of 
Christ, as the Caliphs did not interfere with their devotions any 



JERUSALEM. 24I 

further than by exacting a small tribute from each visitor. But 
the cruelties practiced upon the pilgrims by the Turks were 
many, and report of them soon roused all Europe to a pitch of 
indignation, and brought about that series of holy wars which, 
for a time, restored the holy sepulcher into Christian hands. 
Jerusalem was stormed and taken July 15, 1099, and 50,000 
Moslems were slaughtered by their wrathful Christian foes. 
The new sovereignty was precariously maintained until 1187, 
when it fell before the power of Saladin. Jerusalem, after a 
siege of twelve days, surrendered. Saladin, however, did not 
put his captives to death, but contented himself by expelling 
them from the city. Jerusalem passed into the hands of the 
Franks by treaty in 1229, was retaken by the Moslems in 1239, 
once more restored in 1243, and finally conquered in 1244 by a 
horde of Kharesmian Turks. In 15 17 Palestine was conquered 
by Sultan Selim I., and since then has been under the rule of 
the Ottoman Empire, except for a brief period— from 1832 to 
1840 — when it was in the hands of Mahomet Ali, Pasha of 
Egypt, and his son Ibrahim had his seat of government at 
Jerusalem. 

Jerusalem is at present filled with pilgrims from all parts 
of the world, gathering for the Easter festival next month. A 
careful study of them reveals three classes : 

Firstly. The devout pilgrim, who believes everything he sees 
and hears. He devours all the traditions concerning Christ's 
life and death with the greatest eagerness. To him "the four- 
teen stations" between Pilate's Judgment Hall and the summit 
of Calvary, are as venerable as Gethsemane and the Mount of 
Olives. 

Secondly. The undevout pilgrim, who believes nothing but 
what has been demonstrated by modern scientific investigation. 
He is always trying to find out if an event could not have hap- 
pened somewhere else. He has no use for tradition whatever. 
In fact, he is always opposed to the old-time traditions. 

Thirdly. There are some who are willing to believe in the 
traditions that are reasonable, and refuse to accept those which 
are palpably opposed to the Scriptures. 

Now, to which of the above classes your American pilgrims 



242 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

belong can readily be guessed. Since coming here, I am satis- 
fied that nothing is to be gained by overthrowing any tradition 
that is in entire harmony with Scripture teaching. From my 
observations I have found many traditions that are entirely con- 
tradictory to the Bible. These I shall notice as I go along, but 
the others I shall sim.ply state and leave the reader to judge for 
himself, after a critical examination of the various authorities 
accessible to him. 

Our first day in Jerusalem was very. rainy, which made sight- 
seeing unpleasant out-doors, so we confined ourselves almost 
entirely to places under cover. Our conductor for Palestine 
took charge of the party at Jerusalem. As we compose quite 
a happy little family, it may not be amiss to present them in a 
brief introduction to the readers of this book. Among 
Americans, beside our own band — Bros. Errett, Moore, 
Toof, wife and mother — may be mentioned Revs. Morgan, 
of Moline, 111., Camp, of Newark, N. J.,* and Bond, 
St. Johns, Newfoundland — the first, a Congregational,- the 
second, a Presbyterian, and the third a Wesleyan minister; 
also the American Consul at Jerusalem (Mr. Gilman, of De- 
troit, Mich.), and his son. Among the English, are Dr. Mc- 
Fail, of Liverpool (Pres.), Mr. Sinclair, of Birmingham, a 
rationalist by investigation, a geologist by choice, and a lecturer 
from sheer necessity. Tradition irritates him very much as a 
red rag does a bull. 

There are also two young gentlemen by the name of Byron, 
accompanied by their sister, members of the Wesleyan Church, 
and exceedingly agreeable people; Mr. Brewster, from Liver- 
pool (merchant), and Mr. Hanbury, a young Cambridge junior, 
who has some idea of "taking orders" in "the Church," 
and is, therefore, traveling as a part of his education. He is a 
thoroughly cultivated and pleasant traveling companion. Then 
to close with, we have a Mr. Atkinson, wife and sister, who 

*While revising this article (Aug. 23,1888), a letter from Bro. J. T. Toof, New Haven, 
Conn., contains the following sad news. It is a clipping from the New York Times: " Suicide 
OF A Clergyman. — The Rev. Edward H. Camp, a Presbyterian minister, of Newark, N. J., 
who had just returned from Palestine, committed suicide in Newark last night by cutting his 
throat and then jumping into a cistern. Ill-health was the cause." Bro. Camp was one of the 
brightest, cheeriest and most pleasant of all our party, aiid great burden must have borne upon 
him to cause such a result. 




FRONT OF CHURCH OF THE HOLV SEPULCHER. 



Page 243. 



JERUSALEM. 245 

are all "devout pilgrims," and who invariably respond to the 
most absurd stories of the Greeks and Latins by the exclama- 
tion of " Dear me ! How wonderful !" There are several others, 
but as they have no special points of character, we will class 
them among the " miscellaneous." Our party of travelers con- 
sists of twenty — and with conductors, servants and messengers, 
of fifty. Traveling over the same route are a party of fifteen 
American M. E. clergymen, a private party of American and 
English people, and a party of German nobles. So, when we 
all camp together, as we sometimes do, we make quite a little 
village. The first place we visited in Jerusalem was "the 
Church of the Holy Sepulcher. " It is approached by an open 
quadrangle not quite level, and some three feet lower than the 
level of the street. The church is an immense pile of build- 
ings standing upon the traditional site of Calvary, which has 
been built at sundry times and in divers manners from the time 
of Helena, the Mother of Constantine, to the present day. 
The Empress Helena, early in the fourth century, visited the 
Holy Land and made extensive excavations a«d discoveries. 
She built a chapel upon the then supposed site of the sepulcher, 
which is yet standing. There has been no dispute as to the 
location of the sepulcher until the present century. Within 
the walls of the wonderful building you are shown the follow- 
ing sites : Place of Abraham's sacrifice; chapel of Mary; of 
St, James ; of Mary Magdalene ; of the Forty Martyrs ; stone 
on which the body of Jesus was anointed for burial ; place 
where the women witnessed the anointment ; where the angel 
stood who rolled the stone away ; where the body lay ; the cen- 
ter of the world ; the prison of Christ ; where they derided him ; 
where they cast lots for his garments ; where the penitent thief 
was crucified ; where Christ was nailed to the cross ; where he 
was crucified ; grave of Adam and Melchizedek. And now 
your readers have enough of these so-called holy places, yet I 
assure you that I have not included half of them in the above 
list. I turned away from the place disappointed and almost 
sick at heart. It seemed as though the various sects of earth 
are imitating the Roman soldiers who parted his garments and 
cast lots for his vestments. 



246 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



Recent investigations go to show that the spot where the 
church now stands was within the city walls in the time of 
Christ, and therefore could not have been Calvary. Also, a 
mound has been discovered somewhat shaped as a skull, which 
is claimed to be "the place of a skull," or, in common par- 
lance, "skull hill." It is, moreover, the traditional place 01 
punishment, according to the Jews. It was outside the walls, 
and yet nigh unto the city. There is also at its base a little 
garden filled with fig and olive trees, and in the garden a 




THE HOLY SEPULCHER. 



sepulcher, now ancient, but which could have been the new- 
made sepulcher spoken of by one of the Evangelists. Another 
peculiar fact we noticed in connection with this hill, viz., the 
rocks are all cracked and fissured. These cracks, beginning at 
the summit, extend down as far as can be seen, and in some 
places they can be traced to a depth of twenty-five feet ; so in 
the very outset we were forced to believe that the real Calvary 
on which the Lord died was not within the walls of the Holy 
Sepulcher. 



JERUSALEM. 24/ 

The various sects which have different chapels in this 
church, and are financially interested — the Greek, Romans, Ar- 
menians and Copts — are very urgent in trying to establish their 
claim ; but in my judgment, it will not be long till that which 
is now venerated as the Holy Sepulcher will be visited only by 
the superstitious and fanatical. 

The shameless imposition practiced upon the superstitious 
Greeks at Easter, in regard to the "Holy Fire" said to be 
sent down from heaven every Easter, and given out to the 
raging and excited multitude by the Greek priests, is enough 
to make all intelligent Christians ashamed — and it proceeds, 
too, from the so-called Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher ! It 
stands under the great dome at the west end of the church, 
which is supported by eighteen pillars. The chapel is a gaud- 
ily decorated building of limestone, 26 by 18 feet in dimen- 
sions, without any architectural beauty of design whatever, but 
overburdened with a profusion of wax candles, and cheap 
paintings and lamps. It is divided into two apartments, the 
first being the Chapel of the Angels, or where the angels stood 
who rolled away the stone ; the other being the sepulcher 
proper. In the first are two holes on each side of the entrance, 
where the " Holy Fire " is given out at Easter. The whole 
scene has been so graphically described by Capt. Conder, that I 
present it: "The pilgrims, who represented every country of 
Christendom — Armenians, Copts, Abysinnians, Russians, 
Syrians, Arabs — each race by itself, in its national dress, 
marked by its colors as well as its style ; not a few women 
among them, some with small babes in their arms, wailing 
above the hubbubs of multitudinous tongues in many lan- 
guages, had been standing in their places for at least ten hours, 
yet they showed no signs of weariness. Every face was 
turned to the Fire-hole ; the only distraction rising when the 
great pewter cans of water were brought round by the charity 
of the priests. Patient and stolid, the Russians and Arme- 
nians stood quietly, each pilgrim holding aloft in his hand, to 
keep them safe, a bundle of perhaps a dozen candles, to light 
at the "Fire" when it should appear. The Egyptians sat 
silent and motionless. The Greek Christians, mostly Syrians 



248 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

by birth, were restless, on the other hand, with hysterical ex- 
citement. Occasionally one of them would struggle up to the 
shoulders of his neighbors, and be pushed over the heads of 
the crowd towards the front. Chants repeated by the hundreds 
of voices, in perfect time, were frequently raised by individual 
ieaders, among them, 'This is the tomb of our Lord,' 'God 
help the Sultan !' ' O Jews! O Jews ! your feast is a feast of 
Apes !' Amidst all the wild confusion, the patience of the 
soldiery was admirable, though at times there seemed danger. 
A lash from a thick hippopotamus-hide whip carried by the 
Colonel, however, instantly administered where there seemed 
a risk of disturbance, restored peace as by magic. About 
one o'clock, the natives of Jerusalem arrived, bursting in 
suddenly, and surging along the narrow lane, many of them 
stripped to their vests and drawers. To clear the line once 
more, after this irruption of a second crowd, was difficult, but 
it was at last done, amidst loud shouts of 'This is the tomb of 
our Lord,' repeated over and over with wondrous rapidity. 
The rotunda now contained, in its little circle of sixty-seven 
feet diameter, from which the space occupied by the Chapel of 
the Holy Sepulcher must be deducted, about 2,000 persons, 
and the whole church perhaps 10,000; but at last the chant of 
the priests was heard in the Greek Church, and the procession 
had begun. First came very shabby banners — the crosses, 
above them, bent on one side. The old Patriarch looked 
frightened, and shuffled along, with a dignitary on both sides 
carrying each a great silver globe, with holes in it, for the 
" Fire " which was to be put inside. Now rose a chorus of 
voices from the men, and shrill cries from the women ; then all 
was still. Two priests stood, bare-headed, by the fire-hole, 
protected by the gigantic guardians at their side. Suddenly a 
great lighted torch was in their hands, passed from the Patri- 
arch within, and with this, the two priests, surrounded by a 
body-guard of gigantic men, turned to the crowd, they and 
their guard trampling like furies through it. In a moment the 
thin line of soldiers was lost in the two great waves of human 
beings, who pressed from each side to the torch, which blazed 
over them, now high, now low, as it slowly made its way to 



JERUSALEM. 249 

the outside of the church, where a horseman sat, ready to 
rush off with it to Bethlehem. 

"In its slow and troubled advance, hundreds of hands, with 
candles, were thrust out towards it, but none could be lighted 
in such a rocking commotion. Presently, however, other 
lighted torches were passed out of the fire-hole, and from 
these the Pilgrims, in eager excitement, more and more widely 
succeeded in kindling their tapers ; but woe to the owner of 
the first one lit ! It was snatched from him, and extinguished, 
by a dozen others, thrust into it. Delicate women and old 
men fought like furies ; long, black turbans flew off uncoiled, 
and what became of the babies, who can tell ? A wild storm 
of excitement raged, as the lights spread over the whole 
church, like a sea of fire, extending to the galleries and choir. 

" A stalwart negro, struggling and charging like a mad 
bull, ran round the church, followed by writhing arms seeking 
to light their tapers from his ; then, as they succeeded in doing 
so, some might be seen bathing in the flame, and singeing 
their clothes in it, or dropping wax over themselves as a me- 
morial, or even eating it. A gorgeous procession closed the 
whole ceremony, all the splendor of jewelled crosses, magnifi- 
cent vestments, and every accessory of ecclesiastical pomp, 
contributing to its effect." 

In 1834, at one of these festivals, a most horrid scene oc- 
curred, which is graphically described in " Curzon's Monas- 
teries of the Levant " : 

"The guards outside, frightened at the rush from within, 
thought that the Christians wished to attack them, and the 
confusion soon grew into a battle. The soldiers, with their 
bayonets, killed numbers of fainting wretches, and the walls 
were spattered with the brains and blood of men who had been 
felled, like oxen, with the butt-ends of soldiers' muskets. 
Everyone struggled to defend himself, and in the melee all who 
fell were immediately trampled to death by the rest. 
The dead were lying in heaps even upon the Stone of Unction ; 
and I saw full four hundred butchered people, dead and dying, 
heaped promiscuously one upon another, in some places above 
five feet high." 



250 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

Almost opposite the Holy Sepulcher is the ruin of the monas- 
tery of the Knights of St. John — a very large ruin belonging to 
the Crusading Knights, and which has only recently been par- 
tially exhumed. Its vaults descend to about forty feet below the 
present level of the city, and when fully cleared, will no doubt 
throw light upon many important questions. After leaving the 
latter place, we went down to the Via Dolorosa, up which our 
Saviour came bearing his cross. At the end we came to a new 
building located upon the site of Pilate's Judgment Hall. 
There are still some remains of the ancient building. Several 
arches are there, which antiquarians say date back to Pilate's 
time. One of these is pointed out as the place where Pilate 
and Jesus stood when the former cried to the multitude, " Be- 
hold the man." It is now called the " Arch of EcceHomo." After 
leaving this, we visited the tower of Antonia, where Paul was 
rescued from the mob by the Roman officers. It was also 
one of the places which fell before the Romans on their way 
to the temple near which it stood. The town has been rebuilt, 
but the old stones were largely used in the construction. We 
may therefore say that it is largely the same tower upon the 
same spot. It, therefore, must overlook the exact place of 
Paul's peril at the hands of his infuriated countrymen. From 
the Tower of Antonia we proceeded to the Wailing-place of 
the Jews. It is a narrow street upon the western side of the 
ancient temple wall. The Jews, standing here, place their faces 
against little cavities and fissures in the wall, and mourn over 
the buried hopes of their beloved nation. The wall is com- 
posed of massive marble blocks from five to fifteen feet in 
length, and two or three feet in depth and breadth. " It is a 
strange place to stand in, the walls towering up so loftily, 
flowers growing in the crevices, creeping plants swaying lazily 
to and fro in the idol winds, and at the foot are the wailing 
Jews. 

"Old men, with black turbans or caps, dressed in dingy 
greasy gabardine, . . . the Hebrew Psalter, or some other 
sacred book, in their hands, the body waving to and fro, the 
lips muttering and wailing out lamentation." Baedeker gives 
the following as a specimen of them : 



JERUSALEM. 

For the palace that lies desolate, 
We sit in solitude and mourn ; 
For the palace that is destroyed. 
We sit in solitude and mourn ; 
For the walls that are overthrown, 
We sit in solitude and mourn ; 
For our majesty that is departed, 
We sit in solitude and mourn ; 
For our great men that lie dead, 
We sit in solitude and mourn ; 
For the priests who have stumbled, 
We sit in solitude and mourn." 



251 




WAILING-PLACE OF THE JEWS. 



This was one of the few ceremonies that struck me as being 
genuinely sincere. Many of the others seemed to be mere 
" performances." 

From the Wailing-place we passed southward through what 
is called the Mughrebbin Quarter, the most ignorant and fana- 



252 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

tical of all the Moslem population. We were greeted with a 
bountiful supply of hisses and grating of teeith by a people 
whose looks plainly said it would be a satisfaction to them to 
tear us to pieces, if they could do it with impunity. We 
passed out the south wall of the city through the Barclay Gate, 
named in honor of its discoverer, Bro. J. T. Barclay. The atmos- 
phere was so misty that we could not get a good view of the 
valley which now faced us, so we passed round to what is 
known as David's Tomb. We first entered a large upper room, 
which we were told stood upon the spot where our Saviour in- 
stituted the Lord's Supper, and from this we passed by means 
of a ladder into another room, some five feet higher, and by 
Moslem liberality (for backsheesh) were permitted to gaze 
through a small hole at a curtain that covered a spot some forty 
feet above where David's Tomb is. I am told that Capt. War- 
ren, when excavating here, ran a shaft into the ground, and 
then another horizontally, till he came to a number of tombs. 
As he only had one or two English soldiers, and was working 
a number of ignorant and fanatical Moslems, Avho would have . 
killed him, had they known what he was doing, he became 
alarmed and closed up the place. He afterwards expressed the 
opinion that the remains of David and his successors actually 
repose there. In 1839, Sir Moses Montefiore was permitted to 
visit the Mosque, and later Miss Barclay, daughter of J. T. 
Barclay, entered it, and made a sketch of the tomb, from 
which we copy the following: "The tomb is apparently an 
immense sarcophagus of rough stone, and is covered by 
green satin tapestry, richly embroidered with gold. A satin 
canopy of red, blue, green and yellow stripes hangs over the 
tomb, and another piece of black velvet tapestry, embroidered 
in silver, covers a door in one end of the room, which they 
said leads to a cave underneath. Two small silver candlesticks 
stand before this door, and a little lamp hangs in the window 
near it, which is kept constantly burning." It will probably 
not be long ere the full truth will be made known concerning 
this, and also many other of the so-called sacred spots. 

Leaving the Tomb of the Kings, we proceeded to the 
Church of St. James, passing a field of growing wheat on the 



JERUSALEM. 253 

way, which brought to our memory the prophecy of Scripture, 
" Zion shall be plowed as a field." The Church of St. James 
is under the control of the Armenians, and is the only Chris- 
tian church where the devotees are forced to take off their 
shoes before entering. In the church they show you a place 
where the body of St. James is buried, and at another spot 
where his head is buried. Pilgrims were upon their knees 
kissing these places. With this our first day of sight-seeing 
ended. 



BETHLEHEM AND SOLOMON'S POOLS. 

Early the following morning we were in the saddle, ready 
for a three days' tour to the Salt Plain and Jordan Valley. We 
passed out at the Jaffa gate at 8 a. m. The morning was an 
ideal one. The rain was over, the sun shone bright, the dust was 
laid and all our party in excellent spirits. We descended to 
the Valley of Hinnom, then ascended the hill to the Plain of 
Rephaim, passing on our left the Hill of Evil Counsel and the 
site of the country house of Caiaphas. We also had pointed 
out to us the tree upon which Judas hung himself As far as 
I could judge by appearance, it must have been at least twenty 
and not over thirty years old. 

In the valley of Rephaim, David defeated the Philistines, ■ 
coming upon them when the sound of the wind in the top of 
the mulberry trees destroyed the sound of his approach through 
the forest. Just before reaching the summit of a rise in the 
plain, we were shown the well of the Magi, where the star 
reappeared to the wise men after departing from Jerusalem on 
their way to Bethlehem. In the absence of any place having 
a better claim, we accepted this as the spot. Soon after passing 
the well we came to a large monastery called Mar-Elyas. It is 
a strong building, surrounded by heavy stone walls, and evi- 
dently built with an intent to protect the inmates from Bedouin 
attacks, Just opposite this was a large rock in which there 
was quite a depression, which the monks say was made by the 
body of Elijah, who slept upon it one night, in his flight from 
Queen Jezebel. If this be true, the rock was then much softer 
than now, or Elijah was a much harder man than I had sup- 
posed him to be. Shortly after leaving the convent we came 
upon a sight that thrilled our souls to the utmost. Before us, 
in full light of the morning sun, lay the beautiful city of Beth- 
lehem, with its white limestone houses and walls gleaming like 



BETHLEHEM AND SOLOMON S POOLS. 



255 



a city of marble. Truly may it be called " the city of David." 
This was the home of David. It was near here, that he gained 
his first victory, over the lion and bear. It was here that the 
Prophet Samuel anointed him. It was from here that he went 




BETHLEHEM. 



to King Saul, bearing with tender care the harp that in future 
days should charm away the spirit of discord from that wicked 
king. It was here that David's Lord became David's Son and 
dwelt upon earth among men ! 

Looking backward we saw, to the west, the bald head of 
Neby Samwyl, the ancient Mizpeh, rising aloft, and upon the 
right Mount Moriah, the hill of sacrifice, up which Abraham 
toiled with his son Isaac, to offer him unto the Lord — the top 
of the rock now domed with the beautiful mosque of Omar 
glittering Hke a silver crown in the morning sunlight. It must 
be near this very spot that Abraham caught his first view of 
the mountain when he said to the young men, " Abide ye here 
with the ass ; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, 
and come again to you." Far away to the southeast, more 
than a day's journey distant but still in plain view, lay the 
Dead Sea, sleeping within its mountain-locked walls like an 
infant in its mother's arms. Why the monks of Mar-Elyas, 
who could feed upon such blessed Bible memories, should try 
to satisfy their hunger with the " east wind " of silly legends 
about Elijah, is, to me, a most wonderful mystery. 



256 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

Bethlehem is a town of about five hundred houses and 
claims about 8,000 inhabitants. The inhabitants are mostly 
Christian, and consequently clean and industrious. I do not 
remember being asked for "Backsheesh" while there. They 
are very thrifty, and Bethlehem is increasing in population and 
wealth, like some Western towns. I did not see any real estate 
sign in the city, but I should not be surprised if there were con- 
siderable speculation in that line. Just before reaching Beth- 
lehem we came to Rachel's Tomb. It is a small, modern 




RACHEL S TOMB. 



building, resembling a small mosque, but I certainly believe it 
to mark the spot where Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob, died 
in giving birth to Benjamin. They had come down from 
Bethel. " And there was but a little way to come to Ephrath. " 
Here, after the birth of Benjamin, "it came to pass as her soul 
was departing, she called his name Benoni (son of my sorrow), 
but his father called him Benjamin (the son of my right hand)," 
The story of Jacob and Rachel is indeed a touching love story. 
He became a servant seven long, weary years for her, and so 
much did love lighten labor that it seemed to Jacob but a few 
days, for the love he bore her. Long years after, when an aged 
patriarch, weary with life's burden, he tells in tender tones the 



BETHLEHEM AND SOLOMONS POOLS. 2$y 

touching story of his loss: "And as for me, when I came to 
Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, 
when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath ; 
the same is Bethlehem." Every month it is the custom of the 
Jews to go to the tomb and wail for her loss, As we passed 
the tomb a number were so engaged. It was a boisterous, 
wild outcry, but seemed quite mechanical. But if we consider 
the length of time she has been dead, and how soon we cease 
to wail over our beloved ones, we may not criticize them if 
they do not throw as much spirit into the performance as we 




SOLOMON S POOLS. 



think proper. Around this tomb, the ground is covered with 
stones about as thickly as they can be strewn to have any 
ground left. This is accounted for by a legend which says that 
on one occasion when Christ was passing along, he observed a 
peasant sowing peas. On being asked by the Saviour what he 
was sowing, the churl replied, "Stones," " For this reply," 
said Christ, "stones you shall reap." All of which maybe 
very true, but if it was, the field of that peasant must have 
been an extra large one, extending even for miles. 

Leaving Bethlehem upon our left, we passed Beit-Jala on 
the right, also a Christian town about half the size of Bethle- 
hem. It corresponds to the scriptural Zelyah, where Saul was 



258 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



met by the messengers of Samuel, when hunting for the asses 
of his father, who said, "The asses that thou wentest to seek 
are found, and lo ! thy father hath left the care of the asses 
and sorroweth for thee, saying, What shall I do for my son?" 
About an hour's travel southeast of Beit-Jala, on the Hebron 
road, we came to the pools of Solomon. Standing near the 
upper pool is a large stone building — El-Burak — with castel- 
lated walls, built by the Crusaders. It has been called a castle, 
but was most probably built for a Khan, for which purpose it 




SUPPLY-FOUNTAIN OF SOLOMON S POOLS. 



is now used. In front of the building is an excellent camping 
place, generally occupied by pilgrims at this season of the year. 
Near it is what is supposed to be the "sealed fountain" re- 
ferred to by Solomon. It is claimed that this fountain regulated 
and controlled the water supply at Jerusalem. If true, there 
was a special appositeness in the figure. 

These pools lie, one below another, down the valley from 
the fountain, with a distance of one hundred and sixty feet be- 
tween the upper and middle, and two hundred and forty-eight 



BETHLEHEM AND SOLOMCN's POOLS. 259 

feet between the latter and the lower pool. The lower is the 
largest, and Dr. Thompson says that "when full would float 
the largest man-of-war that ever ploughed the ocean." 

It is nearly a half mile from the western end of the upper 
to the eastern end of the lower pool. The upper was well 
filled with water, the middle partially so, and the lower had 
scarcely any water in it. These pools are fed by four springs. 
One is said to bubble up from beneath ; another rises in the 
old castle ; the: third comes through a subterranean passage 
into the western pool and is the sealed fountain referred to 
above ; while the fourth rises southeast of the fort and is con- 
veyed into the pool by an aqueduct. The masonry is in good 
condition, for it is simply a wall against the solid rock, for out 
of such the reservoirs were hewn, at an age, too, when iron 
tools were little known, and their irregularity shows conclu- 
sively the workmen did not know how to work to a straight 
line. They are much wider at some places than at others. 

These pools formed the center of a large water-supply 
system that extended several miles further south, and from 
whence an aqueduct ran, passing under these pools to tap 
them, and convey their resources to Jerusalem. At present 
the aqueduct leads only as far as Bethlehem, but the course of 
the ancient one can be traced all the way to the Temple area. 
There is now a large fountain, where it is supposed Solomon 
placed the brazen sea, underneath which are large cisterns, 
which were supplied from the Pools of Solomon. There has 
been some discussion as to their origin, but I believe the great 
weight of authority assigns them to Solomon, though they may 
have been improved by Pontius Pilate. Josephus tells us that 
Pontius Pilate took the "corban" of the temple treasury to 
erect some conduits. He thereby incurred the ill-will of the 
Jews, to a great extent, as they regarded it a sacreligious 
spoliation of sacred wealth. But if the confiscation of church 
funds for the welfare of the State, were the worst that could be 
said of Pilate, he would rank far higher in history than he 
does. 

Leaving the pools, we rode down the valley, crossing and 
re-crossing the aqueduct, to the Arabian village of Urtas, 



26o AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

probably the ancient Etham of the Bible, where Samson was 
seized and delivered to his enemies, the Philistines. Josephus 
tells us that Solomon was accustomed to take a morning drive 
to this place. If so, the roads were much better then than 
now, or the mornings longer, for in any kind of a wheeled ve- 
hicle the day would be well spent in driving out and back. The 
valley here is still very fertile and in a high state of cultivation, 
and was most probably the gardens of Solomon, mentioned in 
Eccles, ii. 4-6: "I made me great works. I builded me 
houses; I planted me vineyards; I made me gardens and 
orchards, and I planted in them of all kinds of fruits." 

It is beautiful now, but certainly can not compare with its 
glory in the days of Solomon. It was then filled "with pleas- 
ant fruits, camphire, with spikenard, and saffron, calamus and 
cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense." Fruits and veget- 
ables are now raised here for the Jerusalem market. 

As I watched the insects, busy now, as of old, the thought 
came to me that on these same hillsides, and looking upon the 
same forms of animal life, the Royal Naturalist may have 
written some of his wise proverbs about the ant, coney, or 
swallow. . 

A short distance down the valley the road turns to the 
right from the direct Bethlehem road and leads to what is known 
in English as the Frank Mountain, and called by the natives 
J.ebel Fureidis, 2. e.. Hill of Paradise. It rises, almost a perfect 
cone, from out the surrounding hills to a height of four hun- 
dred feet. There is every reason to believe that this hill cor- 
responds to the castle of Herodium founded by Herod the 
Great. Josephus describes very explicitly the castle, aque- 
duct, mound and distance from Jerusalem. With all of which 
the Frank Mountain agrees in every particular except the latter 
—it being slightly farther away ; but this may be easily 
accounted for by the change of roads. On the top of this hill 
Herod reared a magnificent palace after the Roman style — and 
at the foot a number of villas were erected by his sycophants 
— the whole forming quite a little city, in its day — with Herod's 
castle as the Acropolis. To this place Herod brought an 
abundance of wat^r from the Pools of Solomon, both for baths 



BETHLEHEM AND SOLOMON's POOLS. 2"6l 

and other purposes. Here he bravely defended himself against 
the Spartans. Here also he was buried in royal splendor very 
shortly after he gave the command to destroy the infants of 
Bethlehem. 

" His life had been a splendid failure. He had a wide king- 
dom, but his life had been a long struggle with public enemies 
or with domestic troubles, and in his old age he found that all 
his misery, which had made him the murderer of his wife, her 
mother, and his two sons, not to speak of other relations and 
connections, had been planned for selfish ends by those whom 
he had trusted. The curse had come back on him to the full, 
for his eldest son had sought to murder him. His government 
had been no less signal a failure, for revolt had burst into flames 
at the mere report of his death. The strong man was bowed 
to the dust at last. A loathsome disease prostrated him, and 
he suffered such agonies that men said it was a punishment for 
his countless iniquities. Carried across the Dead Sea to the 
sulphur baths of Callirhoe, he fainted and almost died under 
the treatment. All around him were alarmed lest he should 
do so before ordering the execution of Antipater (his son), but 
an attempt on the part of the prisoner to bribe his goaler was 
fatal to him. Augustus had granted permission for his execu- 
tion, with caustic irony, that it was better to be Herod's sow than 
his son. Five days after Antipater had fallen, Herod himself 
expired. He was in his seventy-first or seventy-second year 
when he died." — Life and Words of Christ. He died at 
Jericho, to which place he went from the baths of Callirhoe. 
A local tradition has it, that he was buried near ths great res- 
ervoir at Herodium. There is now a mound near the reservoir 
ruin that may some day reveal a wonderful story. It obtained 
its English name — Frank Mountain — from the Crusaders, being 
the last great stand made by the European chivalry against the 
Saracens — nearly forty years after Jerusalem was taken by the 
Turks. We did not ascend to the summit, but have ever since 
regretted it, for the view from it overlooks many of the most 
interesting localities of Bible history. To the east the region 
is made memorable by the life of John the Baptist. To the 
south and in the immediate neighborhood is the wild, bleak 



262 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

region to which David fled with his 400 outlaws, when hunted 
like " a partridge in the mountains" by King Saul. To the 
southwest is Tekoa, the birthplace of the prophet Amos. It 
was also the residence of the "wise woman" who went to 
King David with the message that caused him to send for his 
outlawed Absalom. But returning via Wady Urtas, our party 
now find ourselves approaching Bethlehem. 

The landscape for several miles around Bethlehem is per- 
haps the prettiest picture of rural life in all Palestine. It was 
springtime, and the peasants were busy with grains, fruits and 
vegetables, which grew with remarkable profusion out of the 
soil, which had largely been cleared of stones. The only reason- 
for the thrift and industry displayed here is, that the people are 
Christians. 

It was considerably after our usual lunch time, and, strange 
as it seems now, lean distinctly remember that the place I first 
wished to see in the town was the lunch table. The rest of the 
party seemed to be of the same mind, for it was only a few 
moments after alighting from our steeds till we were all assem- 
bled in a chapel of the Church of the Nativity, doing justice 
to a fine spread. How strange to be eating so heartily upon 
the site of that inn in which there was no room for our Saviour 
to be born ! Nearly all that is of interest in Bethlehem cen- 
ters around the Church of the Nativity. It is most probably 
the oldest church in the world, and certainly, in the Holy Land. 
It was built by order of Constantine, who began his reign a. d. 
306. The date of the erection is generally fixed a. d. 321. 
The nave is 170 feet long, and is the common property of all 
Christians. In this, Baldwin was crowned, the second Chris- 
tian king of Jerusalem. A legend says that he chose Bethle- 
hem before Jerusalem for the coronation ceremonies, because 
he did not wish to wear a crown of gold where his Saviour had 
worn a crown of thorns. 

The ceiling is made of cedar wood from Lebanon, and is in 
its rough state. The place of Bethlehem is the Grotto, where 
Christ was born. It is fifteen or twenty feet below the church, 
and the descent is by a spiral stairway. Nearly all the inns in 
Palestine are built with a basement story, similar to our " bank 



BETHLEHEM AND SOLOMON S POOLS. 



263 



barns" in the West. This is generally cut into the rocky hill- 
side, and is the place where the animals are kept. It was 
doubtless to such a place that Mary and Joseph were assigned. 
On one side of the grotto is a recess where a silver star in the 




THE SILVER STAR OVER THE BIRTHPLACE OF CHRIST. 

pavement marks the supposed site of the birth. Around the 
star is the inscription in Latin, " Here, Jesus Christ, was born 
of the Virgin Mary." Above the star hang sixteen silver 
lamps, six of which belong to the Greeks, and the remainder 
equally divided between the Armenians and Latins. Near this 
recess is another, called the Chapel of the Manger, where a 



264 - AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE 

wooden manger was discovered and taken to Rome. I believe 
it is now in the Church of Sta. Maria Maggiore, and is shown as 
the real manger of Christ ! 

They also have an altar erected over the spot where the 
wise men are said to have offered their gifts. Near the Grotto 
of Nativity they show you where Joseph repaired during the 
nativity, where the angel warned him to flee into Egypt, and 
where the twenty thousand (.^) infants are buried that were slain 
by order of Herod. They also have near at hand the Tomb of 
Eusebius, and the Chapel and Tomb of St. Jerome. While we 
may have grave doubts of the tomb of Eusebius, the tomb of 
St. Jerome is undoubtedly genuine. Dean Stanley has most 
eloquently described that strange character : 

"If the traveller follows the windings of that subterranean 
gallery, he will find himself, at its close, in a rough chamber 
hewn out of the rock, here sufficiently clear to need no proof 
of vindication. 

"In this cell, in all probability, lived and died the most 
illustrious of all the pilgrims attracted to the cave of Bethle- 
hem, the only one of the many hermits and monks, from the 
time of Constantine to the present day, sheltered within its 
rocky sides, whose name has traveled beyond the limits of the 
Holy Land. Here, for more than thirty years, beside what he 
believed to be literally the cradle of the Christian faith, Jerome 
fasted, prayed, dreamed and studied ; here he gathered around 
him his devoted followers into the small communities which 
formed the beginning of conventual life in Palestine ; here the 
fiery spirit which he had brought with him from his Dalmatian 
birthplace, and which had been first roused to religious fervor 
on the banks of the Moselle, vented itself in the flood of 
treatises, letters, and commentaries, which he poured forth 
from his retirement to terrify, exasperate and enlighten the 
Western World. Here also was composed the famous trans- 
lation of the Scriptures which is still the Biblia Vulgata of 
the Latin church ; and here took place that pathetic scene, his 
last communion and death, at which all the world has been per- 
mitted to be present in the wonderful picture of Domenichino, 
which has represented in colors never to be surpassed the -at- 



BETHLEHEM AND SOLOMON's POOLS. 265 

tenuated frame of the weak and sinking flesh, the resignation 
and devotion of the spirit ready for its immediate departure." 

When I entered the grotto it was with the most profound 
feeling of awe, but so many monkish stories and sites almost 
robbed me of the reverential spirit. I found it hard to even 
believe that I was at the birthplace of Christ, It looked too 
much like a Catholic Church. And yet there is no good reason 
to doubt the location of that event. It has been accepted as 
the spot both by friends and enemies, from a. d. 150 — a time 
when Polycarp, the disciple of John, still lived. The heathen 
emperor, Hadrian, shov/ed his faith in the tradition by building 
a grove, and establishing the worship of Adonis over it, in 
order to desecrate it. Both Origen and Justin Martyr refer to 
it as the site. 

As I linger, the marble floor gives way to one of stone ; 
the gorgeous altars, to wooden beams ; the chantings of the 
priests to the lowing of cattle ; the gorgeously decorated walls 
to the plain, rocky cavern ; the silver star and lamps to the 
glittering star of Bethlehem ; the idle tourist to the shepherds of 
the plain ; the smoking incense to gold, frankincense and myrrh, 
and I can almost hear the wail of my new-born Saviour, as he 
is wrapped in swaddling bands, laid in the manger, and warmed 
into life by the breath of wondering oxen. Again and again 
rose to my lips the beautiful words of one of our sweetest 
Christian bards : 

" There 's a song in the air, 

And a star in the sky; 
There 's a mother's deep prayer, 

And a baby's low cry. 
And the star rains its fire. 

While the beautiful sing ; 
For the manger of Bethlehem 

Cradles a King, 

" There 's a tumult of joy 

O'er the wonderful birth, 
For the virgin's sweet boy 

Is the Lord of the earth. 
The star rains its fire, 

While the beautiful sing ; 



266 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE 

For the manger of Bethlehem 
Cradles a King. 

" In the light of that star 

Lie the ages impearled ; 
That song, from afar, 

Has swept over the world. 
And the star rains its fire, 

While the beautiful sing 
In the homes of the nations, 

That Jesus is King, 

•" We rejoice in the light. 

We echo the song 
That comes down through the night, 

From the heavenly throng 
We shout to the lovely 

Evangel they bring. 
And greet in his cradle 

Our Saviour and King." 

It is now, however, getting late in the afternoon, and we 
must hurry on to our encampment, which is on the banks of 
the Kidron, a short distance up the gorge from the convent of 
Mar-Saba — some nine miles east of Bethlehem. Nearly a 
mile east of the church is the Field of the Shepherds, where 
they were watching their flocks by night when they received 
the "good tidings of great joy." Whether this be the spot 
or not, it was interesting to take out my Bible, and turn to 
Luke ii. 8, and read: "And there were in the same country 
shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock 
by night. And, lo ! the angel of the Lord came upon them, 
and the glory of the Lord shone round about them : and they 
were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: 
for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall 
be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of 
David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this sJiall be 
a sign unto you ; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling 
clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the 
angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will 
toward men." When we saw it, it was no longer a grazing 
field, but a fine crop of growing wheat covered it. It is also 



BETHLEHEM AND SOLOMON's POOLS. 26/ 

the spot which tradition has fixed upon as the place where 
Ruth gleaned in the fields of her kinsman, Boaz. And, by the 
way, there is no part of the Bible which more fully represents 
the habitudes and customs of the land to-day than that simple 
story of pastoral life. 



DEAD SEA AND JORDAN VALLEY. 



Between Bethlehem and Mar Saba there is nothing of spe- 
cial interest, it being a succession of bare hills and vales, up and 




down which we made our way, catching sight occasionally of 

the black tents of the Bedawin, who inhabit that part of the 

268 



DEAD SEA AND JORDAN VALLEY. 269 

country between Bethlehem and the Dead Sea. These made 
us feel just a little uncomfortable, but the agent of our sheikh 
sent to convey us would ride back and forth along the line with 
a shout, and brandish his weapons of warfare with an enthusi- 
asm that made us feel that he could chase a thousand or put 
ten thousand to flight — if noise counted. 

After a weary ride down a valley and then up a succession 
of rocky hills, we were startled by a loud shout, and, looking 
up, saw Bro. Moore waving his hat and shouting as though he 
had experienced religion in the good old style. Quickening 
our pace, we were soon at the top of the hill, where one of the 
grandest sights that ever met our gaze lay spread before us 
like a map. To our left rose the Mount of Olives, wrapped in 
green fields and ohve gardens and crowned by the Church of the 
Ascension. In front of us lay the whole valley of the Jordan, 
from the Dead Sea to its vari- 
ous sources, at the base of 
Mount Hermon, whose snowy 
sides glittered in the afternoon 
sun like some warrior giant in 
silver mail, plainly visible at a 
distance of more than a hun- 
dred miles. To our left, far 
down in its cradle among the 
hills, we could see the beauti- 
ful waters of the Dead Sea, 
whose iridescent waves were bed^awin eating. 

constantly changing color in the sunlight. It did not look to 
be more than five miles away, though really more than twenty. 
Far beyond it rose the lofty and rugged peaks of Moab, whose 
chalky and barren sides have been deeply graven with the 
storms of ages past. Rising above the others were the lordly 
heads of Nebo and Pisgah, plainly visible at forty miles' dis- 
tance. As we gazed at those giant sentinels we could not help 
noticing how easily Moses could have viewed the whole Land 
of Promise from Nebo's summit. Standing, as we were, on a 
little hillock, a very large portion of the land was in view, and 
we were all satisfied that standing where Moses stood, under 




2/0 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

the same conditions of air and sky as in our view, we could 
easily have seen the whole land compassed by Dan, Beersheba 
and the Mediterranean Sea. 

Looking upon this scene, how impressive the simple account 
which the Bible gives of Moses' death : " So Moses, the servant 
of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the 
word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley in the land 
of Moab, over against Beth-peor, but no man knoweth of his 
sepulcher to this day." Mrs. Alexander has also recorded 
this same transaction in impressive strains of sweet poesy : 

" By Nebo's lonely mountain, 

On this side of Jordan's wave, 
In a vale in the land of Moab, 

There lies a lonely grave. 
" And no man knows the sepulchre, 

And no man saw it e'er. 
For the finger of God upturned the sod, 

And laid the dead man there. 
'- That was the grandest funeral 

That ever passed on earth. 
Yet no man heard the trampling. 

Nor saw the train go forth, 

" And had he not high honor ? 

The hillside for a pall — 
To lie in state while angels wait. 

And stars for tapers tall. 
" And the dark pines rock like tossing plumes. 

Over his bier to wave, 
And God's own hand in that lonely land. 

To lay him in his grave." 

We now began the descent to the convent of Mar Saba, 
near which in the Kidron Valley we could see our white- 
jdomed tents, already awaiting our arrival. The convent is in 
the midst of the bleakest and most desolate country I ever 
saw. But I suppose the scenery is in full sympathy with the 
hearts of misguided mortals who abandon all that is green and 
fresh in human life for a cloister existence. Gentlemen who 
arm themselves with a letter of introduction from the Greek 
Patriarch at Jerusalem, and arrive before sundown, are enter- 
tained over night, but ladies are under no circumstances ad- 



DEAD SEA AND JORDAN VALLEY. 2/1 

mitted. They must remain in a sort of tower, where they are 
carefully locked up, that they may not break through the 
Stony convent walls and wean the brothers away. 

I really think this a wise precaution, and also the Turkish 
custom of carefully excluding men from the sight of ladies in 
Harems and Seraglios. If there is any remedy for misanthropy 
in man, it is God's remedy, "It is not good for man to be 
alone." The monks are a shiftless, lazy, good for nothing lot 
of "stags," and when brought together in a group, as at Mar 
Saba, make a regular stagnation of themselves. The best wish 
I can make for them is that God may soon disperse them 
abroad upon the face of the earth, and bring them in contact 
with real enemies without, when they will cease the useless 
conflict against their own human nature. 

Having come upon a description of the convent which I 
feel is superior to any that I can give, I take the liberty to 
insert it: " Having entered, we find ourselves in one of the 
strangest places that human ingenuity ever contrived for a dwell- 
ing place. It is a series of precipices, with walls of natural rock 
and artificial battlements. You look down at buildings, and 
court yards, and labyrinths of passages, and up at curious 
holes in the walls — with ledges in front — where are the cells 
and dwelling-places of the monks. The place is full of 
mystery. You see men walking upon these ledges of rock, 
and turning into these holes in the walls, and you look upon a 
little garden hanging in the air, as it seems, with a solitary 
palm tree looking wonderingly down into the chasm, in which 
are more buildings, and chapels, and cupolas. None but the 
initiated could find his way through these mysterious labyrinths, 
and once within these strong walls, woe to him who would 
force his way out." 

The founder of the convent was one Sabas, who was a 
great theologian and polemic, and noted for his sanctity. He 
retired here and lived in a natural cave in the rock, as did also 
his followers. After the convent was built the many caves 
were abandoned, and are now inhabited by jackals. Inside the 
monastery is the tomb of Sabas, now empty, the body, I be- 
lieve, having been removed to Constantinople. The chapel of 



2/2 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

St. Nicholas is a cave containing the skulls of over five hun- 
dred monks slaughtered by the Persians. The monks' quart- 
ers are dirty and slip-shod, just what you would probably see 
in a place inhabited by old bachelors in the United States. 
The cave of St. Sabas is also shown, and the legend says that 
he found it inhabited by a lion, who kindly allowed the old 
gentleman to live with him, but not developing in the graces 
of religion as rapidly as was desirable — sleeping during prayers 
and catechism — the saint expelled him entirely. In my judg- 
ment the act was not at all to the credit of the saint, and if put 
into general practice would drive many fairly good people en- 
tirely away from religious associations. 

We left the convent just before sun-down, and in a few 
moments were sitting in our tents drinking an excellent cup of 
English breakfast tea, which is always ready for us when we 
arrive, A short time after, dinner was announced, which is 
the great meal of the day, and corresponds with supper in the 
western part of our country. 

This was the first night under tents in Palestine, and as we 
passed a month in that sort of way, perhaps our readers would 
like a short description of our mode of tent life. Bros. Moore, 
Errett and the Avriter occupied one tent. It was circular, 
about fifteen feet in diameter, and contained three iron bed- 
steads, with all necessary bedding. Smyrna rugs were spread 
upon the floor of earth, while around the '"center-pole" was 
arranged a table, with three wash pitchers and three basins, 
with towels for each party ; a mirror was also hung to the pole. 
The tents were made of heavy duck canvas, lined upon 
the inside with chintz of various colors, so as to make the 
interior have a very cheerful appearance. 

Our tents were pitched for the night upon a small table- 
land, between the foot of the mountains and the brook Kidron, 
which was now a dry bed, full of pebbles, ranging from the 
size of a walnut to that of an ostrich &^g. We walked out in 
the starlight, and sat musing under the brilliantly-lighted heav- 
ens, and talked freely about the night-scenes of the Bible. 

Night in Palestine is far superior to that season at home. 
Only once, in all our journey, was it cloudy, and that was in a 



DEAD SEA AND JORDAN VALLEY. 2/3 

storm at the base of Hermon. The stars seemed to be hung 
only a short distance above us, and did not have that far-away- 
look they do at home. No wonder the untutored patriarch 
looked upon them as objects of Avorship. 

Just back of us, and resting above the edge of the hill, and 
directly over Bethlehem, was Venus, looking so enlarged as to 
be more like a moon than a planet. Into her bright face, 
doubtless, from these same hills, David, as a shepherd-boy, 
looked and learned of the glory to which he afterwards gave 
expression in the Psalms : 

" O Lord, our Lord, 
How excellent is thy name in all the earth ! 
Who hast set thy glory above the heavens. 
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, 
The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained ; 
What is man, that thou art mindful of him ? 
And the son of man, that thou visitest him ?" 

The next morning, at six o'clock, the Timton bell rang. 
The Timton bell is a collection of skillets, tin pans, and horns, 
pots, pokers, etc., which, in the skilled hands of the cooks 
and their assistants, make about three times as much noise as 
an old-fashioned "charivari," and of pretty much the same 
quality. "The boys " take great delight in this part of their 
day's work, and throw as much heart into it as possible. We 
have found it perfectly useless to reason with the Timton. It 
has you up, and up at once. 

At 6:30 we took breakfast, and at 7 were in the saddle and 
on the road to the Dead Sea, which we reached after a four 
hours' ride. Before reaching the sea, we could see some eight 
or ten miles down the shore from Mt. Pisgah, a round-topped 
hill, which marks the spot of the prison of Machcsnis, where 
John the Baptist was beheaded. And just north of it, the 
opening in the hills, out of which flows the water from the 
springs of Callirhoe, where Herod repaired to bathe, shortly pre- 
vious to his death. It is called in the Bible the Sea of the Plain, 
Salt Sea, East Sea. The Talmud calls it the Sea of Sodom, 
and Josephus, Lake Asphaltites. The Arabs now speak of it 
as Bahr-Lut (Sea of Lot). So many writers have written upon 



274 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



this wonderful body of water, that I shall presume the reader 
to be well acquainted with it. Formerly, terrible stories of its 
deadly and destructive gases were told by travelers, but the 




MACH^RUS. 



explorations of one of our countrymen, Lieut. Lynch, have 
exploded all these, and thrown great light upon its formation, 
waters, tributaries, weather, and atmospheric phenomena. In 
his narrative he says : "Everything said in the Bible about the 
Dead Sea and the Jordan we believe to be fully verified by our 
observations. The inference from the Bible, that this entire 
chasm was a plain sunk and overwhelmed by the wrath of God, 
seems to be sustained by the extraordinary character of our 
soundings. . . . There can scarcely be a doubt that the whole 
Ghor has sunk from some extraordinary convulsion ; preceded, 
probably, by an eruption of fire and a general conflagration of 
bitumen, which abounded in the plain." As Lieut. Lynch 
went to the Holy Land strongly sympathizing with unbelief, if 
not an actual unbeliever, I think his testimony should have 
weight with all persons. This sea has been an important land- 
mark in all Scripture history. Lot chose for himself a home 
upon its borders. The battle of the four kings against the five, 



DEAD SEA AND JORDAN VALLEY, 



275 



took place "in the vale of Siddim," which is the Salt Sea. 
Here the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reeking with Iniquity 
and festering in moral corruption, ripened for their doom. 
"The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and 
fire from the Lord out of heaven ; and he overthrew those 
cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, 




SOUTHERN END OF THE DEAD SEA FROM EN''GEDI. 



and that which grew upon the ground." Many opinions have 
been given to prove the cities lay in the south end of the sea, 
and as many conversely. Our guide, who is an accomplished 
linguist and orientalist, and who has spent twenty-seven years 
in the country, inclines to the north end of the sea as the proper 
locality, for which he gave some very strong reasons. There 
is a small stone island near the mouth of the Jordan, which he 
believes to have been the foundation of the little city of Zoar, 
into which Lot fled for safety. Just opposite this island, we 
took a bath, which can never be described. I had read scores 



2/6 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE, 

of such descriptions previous to bathing in it, but the sensation 
can not be experienced by readmg about it. You might as well 
try to understand love, hunger, or melancholy, by reading 
about them. The nearest comparison to it, is to imagine 
yourself floating about in the air, sustained by its specific grav- 
ity, without any effort on your part. None of our party 
experienced any of the pricking sensation afterwards, so gen- 
erally mentioned by writers. On the contrary, I never felt 
better after a bath in my life. This may probably result from 
our visit being made in the early spring, while the Jordan is 
pouring its spring flood into the sea, and before the heat of 
summer has produced any evaporation. 

This sea, while not the most salty, is nearly seven times 
that of the ocean. The only thing like it in America is Salt 
Lake, in Utah. This is so much like it as to cause the Latter 
Day Saints to find in their lake and river an antitype of the 
Dead Sea and the Jordan, 

Its basin is a great saucer, sinking four thousand feet be- 
low Jerusalem, and thirteen hundred below the Mediterranean, 
thus making it the lowest spot on the earth's surface. Into 
this basin the hot sun shines with such force as to be unbear- 
able in the hottest part of the year. While evaporation is 
going on at the rate of 24,000,000 cubic feet per annum, it is 
estimated by the Savants that only 20,000,000 cubic feet of 
water empties into it. 

From these figures some of the wise men argue that the 
ultimate evaporation is drawing near. Indeed, according to 
the above figures, it will not take longer than a half century. 
The Arabs, on the other hand, say it is growing deeper. They 
do not get it from figuring, but fording, a number of places 
that were formerly fordable, being so no longer. That Sea 
reflected the lightning of God's wrath when the cities of the 
plain were destroyed ; and when Abraham looked upon it from 
the plain of Mamre, it was wrapped in columns of smoke. It 
lifted its beautiful face to Joshua in inquiry and astonishment 
when, at his command, the affrighted Jordan stayed its flood 
and kept back its daily portion from the Sea. It formed a 
resting-place for the warriors of Assyria and Babylon when 



DEAD SEA AND JORDAN VALLEY. 27/ 

they came down upon Israel "like the wolf on the fold." 
The stern cry of the fiery-mouthed Baptist fell upon its peaceful 
bosom, and Christ looked upon its calm face from Bethany and 
Bethlehem. It has sent back from its basaltic sides the shrill 
peal of the Roman trumpet, the bugle-blast of the Saracen, 
and the war-cry of the Crusader. It was old when Luther was 
at Rome, and Columbus ventured into the unknown sea, on 
his great voyage of discovery. It is still there, and without 
any evidence of decadence. So, despite the fact that wise men 
predict its extinction, I array myself with the fording Arabs, 
and believe that it will sleep quietly in its basin till "there 
shall be no more sea." 

From the sea to the Jordan Ford is about one and one-half 
hour's ride, over a soil filled with mineral salts, upon which 
hardly any living thing will grow. When we reached the ford, 
several of us concluded that we would bathe there also. I was 
very anxious to swim across the river, but it was high, and the 
current about as swift as our Western streams. The guide, who 
is responsible for our party, strongly urged me not to do it, 
but I am satisfied that it would be no task whatever to a good 
swimmer. I was the only Disciple who bathed here ; but there 
were a number of others, representing the Congregationalist, 
Presbyterian, Methodist, and Wesleyan churches. I was the 
only minister who had been immersed, and the only one who 
did 7iot immerse himself on that occasion. 

As we stood upon the sacred spot, how many precious as- 
sociations came to my mind ! "Lot Hfted up his eyes and 
beheld all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered 
everywhere, . . . even as the garden of the Lord." 

The children of Israel, after their long pilgrimage in the 
desert, "crossed over it on dry ground, until all the people 
were passed clean over." "The people passed over right 
against Jericho." It was also to this spot that Elijah and 
Elisha came. "And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it 
together and smote the waters, so that they two went over on 
dry ground. " And when Elijah leaped into the fire-girt chariot, 
which God let down to bear him from earth to heaven, Elisha 
returned to this place, and taking the mantle, which had fallen 



278 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

from his beloved friend, smote again the waters, so that they 
parted hither and thither, and again he passed over dry shod. 
In the waters of Jordan, Naaman the Leper washed, under 
the instructions of the prophet of God, "And his flesh 
came again Hke unto the flesh of a little child, and he was 
clean." 

Grand as are these memories from the Old Testament, they 
fade away before the New Testament recollections, as the stars 
of heaven before the advancing sun. Here John the Baptist, 
taking the broken harp of Israel and attuning it anew, stirred 
the hearts of God's people with his thrilling words, which 
rang out from this place, "Repent ye; for the kingdom of 
heaven is at hand." It certainly is a pretty thought, whether 
correct or not, that John, who came in the spirit and power of 
Elijah, should begin his work at the place where Elijah left off 
his. But most precious of all memories that came to us here, 
was that our Lord himself was baptized of John in Jordan, 
" And lo, the heavens were open to him, and he saw the Spirit 
of God, descending like a dove, and lighting upon him ; and 
lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in 
whom I am well pleased." 

From the Jordan we started for a three hours' ride to Riha, 
one of the filthiest spots in the Holy Land. The houses are 
full of vermin, the people are thieves to a man, and so in- 
iquitous as to be comparable only to Sodom and Gomorrah. 
Riha is identical with modern Jericho and ancient Gilgal. This 
was Israel's first camping place in the promised land, and 
where they set up the twelve stones, taken from the bed of the 
Jordan. Here, also, they celebrated the first Passover, and the 
rite of circumcision was performed upon those born in the 
wilderness. " And th^ Lord said unto Joshua, This day have 
I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off" you, wherefore 
the name of the place is Gilgal [rolling] unto this day." Here 
"the manna ceased on the morrow, after they had eaten 
of the corn of the land." In later times, the solemn as- 
semblies of Samuel and Saul were at Gilgal. Saul was 
made king here ; and David, when returning from exile, was 



DEAD SEA AND JORDAN VALLEY. 



279 



here met by the whole tribe of Judah, after the death of 
Absalom. 

Here, also, is connected the history of Elisha, who healed 
the poisoned pot, who received Naaman the Syrian, caused him 
to be healed, and transferred his leprosy to Gehazi, his cov- 
etous and deceitful servant. 

The only ancient building in the town is called the House 
of Zacchseus, which tradition points out as the residence of 
the publican, into whose house Christ went. It is now used 
as a stable. It is a very solid stone structure, the walls being 
about six feet thick. We camped for the night near Riha, on 
the banks of the brook Cherith, a babbling little stream run- 
ning down from the Judean hills, and finding its way across 
the plain into the Jordan. 



Our camp stood near the 

spot where Achan was 

stoned, with his family, 

for disobedience. Next 

morning we started for the 

ruins of ancient Jericho, 

some two miles distant, 

picking our way carefully 

among the numerous nubk 

trees that grew upon the 

plain. This must not be 

confounded with modern 

Jericho. Here was the scene 

of Joshua's first victory, wrought for him by the hand of God. 

It was the chief city of ancient Canaan, but is now only a 

mighty heap of stones, some of them, possibly, being thrown 

down with the walls of that city, when Joshua had compassed 

it, according to the command of God. 

We rode up the hill, which rises some hundred feet or 
more above the fountain of Jericho, where we had another 
fine view. Standing there, and allowing the imagination to 
play, how many ancient pictures rose before our vision ! Be- 
fore us lay the plain over which the spies came ; round here 
went up those great walls on which Rahab had her house ; 




NUBK TREE. 



280 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

over there, in the mountains, it seems as if we could make out 
the very place where the spies hid themselves. It was here 
that Joshua went round the city ; and these hills echoed back 
the shrill blast of the trumpets which the priests blew. And 
when the seventh day had come, there went up from the spot 
the great shout of the people, mingling with the blast of the 
trumpets, "and the walls of Jericho fell down fiat." Then 
came that fearful panic, followed by blood, and havoc, and 
death. It was somewhere near here that Rahab, with her kin- 
dred, sat with tear-dimmed eyes, and saw the smoke of the 
burning city ascending. And perhaps it was on some high- 
standing ground, near here, that Joshua, in the presence of all 
Israel, stood, and, pointing to that charred and ruined mass, 
that had once been the strong city of Jericho, cried, " Cursed 
be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this 
city, Jericho ; he shall lay the foundation thereof in his first- 
born, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of 
it." "Despite the curse, five hundred years afterwards a 
man was found who dared to rebuild the city, and who fulfilled 
the prediction by inheriting the curse." 

After looking over the ruins, we descended to what the 
Arabs call Ain-es-sultan, and the Christians, Elisha's Fountain. 
It is a magnificent spring, that bursts out from the base of the 
hill, and flows off in a stream about ten feet wide and one foot 
deep. The water is very clear and sweet. It is called Elisha's 
Fountain because of the incident recorded in II. Kings ii. 
19-22, "And the men of the city said unto Klisha, Behold, I 
pray thee, the situation of the city is pleasant, as my lord 
seeth ; but the water is naught, and the ground barren. And 
he said, Bring me a new cruse, , and put the salt therein. And 
they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring 
of the waters, and cast salt in there, and said, Thus saith the 
Lord, I have healed these waters ; there shall not be from 
thence any more dead or barren land. So the waters 
were healed unto this day, according to the saying of EHsha, 
which he spake." 

A small stream flows off from the pool, about ten feet wide 
and one foot deep ; but this is soon distributed into little irri- 



DEAD SEA AND JORDAN VALLEY. 28 1 

gating rills, and waters the soil, which brings a good crop 
of beans, barley, wheat, and other cereals. The nubk- 
tree, which covers large parts of the plain, is a thorny bush, 
called in the Latin Spina Christi, because of the supposition 
that the crown which pierced the Saviour's brow, was made 
from it. 



JERICHO TO JERUSALEM. 

Immediately behind the ruins of old Jericho rises a moun- 
tain called Quarantania, which answers to the Mount of Tempt- 
ation. It is marked with caverns and convent ruins where 
hermits once abode ; it is even now a wild and dreary region, 
and answers well to the lonely place of our Saviour's conflict, 
though the tradition that this is the exact spot reaches no farther 
into antiquity than the time of the Crusades. The road from 
Jericho up to Jerusalem is one of the best in the country, aside 
from the French pikes. Some years since a Wallachian prin- 
cess came to grief in making this journey, and she devoted sev- 
eral thousand dollars to the improvement of it. If every one 
that meets with trouble in traveling life's moral highway 
would seek to improve it for the feet of others, what astonish- 
ing strides in morals this world would make ! 

Leaving the vicinity of Jericho, we started up the course of 
the brook Cherith, whither Elijah repaired to escape from 
Ahab, and where he was fed by ravens. I believe the word 
"ravens" has been interpreted to mean either the birds of that 
name, or "Arabs, "which some make it. It seemed a little 
ominous that just as we drew near the mouth of the valley a 
single raven flew across from one hill to another in front of us. 

After riding about two hours in the hot sun, we came to 
the place where the man who went down to Jericho "fell 
among thieves. " It certainly has been located in a most 
likely spot — a steep cleft in the hill, full of hiding-places for 
men, and one where it would be difficult to escape by flight. 
The traditional site of the inn to which he was taken is now 
covered by a khan erected by Russia, who seems to be obtain- 
ing all the footholds possible in this land. There is much 
sympathy with Russia among the natives, and in my judgment 
that nation will soon have entire possession of the country. I 



JERICHO TO JERUSALEM. 



283 



should much rather see England or Germany take it, but 
rather than see it remain under Moslem control would prefer 
that Russia have it. From what I have seen of Moslemism in 
its practical workings, I think the most corrupt form of Christ- 
ianity is infinitely preferable to it. At twelve o'clock we 
stopped for lunch at the fountain of Ain-chot. This is a 
spring of most excellent water, about two miles east of Beth- 
any. There is but little doubt that it is En-shemesh of the 
Old Testament, which was one of the boundary marks of the 




->^- 



line between Judah and Benjamin. It is now also called the 
Apostles ' Spring, from an ancient legend which says the 
apostles used to meet here for conference. That they should 
have made it a regular meeting-place is not sustained by any 
proof, but that ihey often met there I think more than prob- 
able. One thing impressed itself upon my mind during the 
whole journey, viz : This must be the very route over which 
our Saviour traveled to and from Jericho. From the nature of 
the country there could hardly have been any other route to 
Jericho, and the rocky foundation of the land made ours the 
only probable road, and while it was hot and dusty, yet every 
turn brought to mind something upon which our Saviour must 



284 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE 

have looked, and the mind was so busy with these recollec ■ 
tions as to entirely relieve us of what would have been, under ■ 
ordinary circumstances, a very tedious ride. After lunch and 
an hour's rest, we started for Bethany, which lay up the hill- 
side nearly an hour's journey. The situation of Bethany is 
very pretty indeed, and we can perceive how, under Jewish 
influences, it must have been a delightful suburb to the royal 
city. But it is at present nothing but an insignificant Moslem 
village, with all the concomitants of dirt, disease and beggary. 
The hillsides around it are very fruitful, and teem with the 
fruit of vine, olive and fig. 

There are numberless places pointed out here that are so 
absurd as to repel the sensible sight-seer They will show you 
exactly where Martha met the Saviour, and the apostles wrote 
the " creed," and so on, if not ad infimtiun, at least ad nauseam. 
Yet strange to say, many people seem eager to devour every- 
thing of the sort. We have a gentleman in our party who be- 
lieves the apostles wrote the "creed." He is a firm believer 
in "Consubstantiation," "Apostolic Succession," "Baptis- 
mal Regeneration," and all the other nonsense of the En- 
ghsh Church. His faith has been staggered but once. At 
the so-called "Tomb of Noah," which is nothing more than 
the fragment of an ancient aqueduct, about 140 feet long, he 
seemed to be a little in doubt. After carefully stepping it off 
and measuring it in several other ways, he finally came to the 
conclusion that "2/ must be too long.'' He did not doubt it 
was the real tomb, but thought that in after years the real tomb 
had been lengthened. There exist the ruined walls of an an- 
cient house in Bethany which a venerable tradition says is the 
house of Simon the leper. The house of Martha and Mary is 
pointed out, as also the Tomb of Lazarus. It was dehghtful 
to stand in the latter and read the eleventh chapter of John, 
feeling sure that if not in that exact spot, at least very near it, 
the voice of the Son of God had startled the vault of death with 
the cry, "Lazarus, come forth," and in front of just such a 
rocky tomb his great heart of love had wept over the sorrows 
of humanity. 

From Bethany it is not quite a mile to the summit of the 



JERICHO TO JERUSALEM. 



285 



Mt. of Olives. It is called by the Arabs Jebel-et-Tur, which 
means " Mountain of Light." It is not a single peak, but a 
range divided into several peaks by depressions, the highest 
peak being over 2,700 feet above sea level and the central 
about 100 feet lower. The central is the proper Mt. Olive. 







Three routes lead from Bethany to Jerusalem, which, for 
convenience, we call the northern, central and southern. 
As we were there the week preceding Palm Sunday, there was 
considerable discussion among the members of our party as to the 
route taken by our Saviour in his triumphal entry into Jerusa- 
lem. The northern route, for many good reasons, could not 



286 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

have been the one. The central route has been fixed upon by- 
tradition as the true route, fixing even the spots where he be- 
held the city and wept over it, and also where he was met by 
the people. In looking over the ground, I could see many 
reasons why this route would not consist with the gospel nar- 
rative, while the southern route has all the conditions 
necessary to harmonize with the record. I therefore de- 
cided, in my own mind, in favor of the latter, which 
I believe has been chosen by many recent authorities in 
opposition to the ancient tradition. On the summit of the 
mountain is built the Church of the Ascension, to mark the 
spot where he ascended, but this seems to be contradicted by 
the simple statement that "he led. them out as far as Beth- 
any," which is nearly a mile further. The descent from the 
mountain to the garden of Gethsemane is down a very steep, 
rough and rocky way. Of the proper location of Gethsemane 
there can not, to my mind, be any possible doubt. Gethsem- 
ane means "oil-press," and doubtless the spot was once used 
for that purpose. It is now, as then, a secluded place, and 
the most fitting of any in the whole valley of Kidron. We all 
felt a new sensation in our hearts as we stood under the ven- 
erable olive trees, which many think ( and not unreasonably 
either ) threw their shadows upon the Son of God in that awful 
hour of spirit-agony and soul-death. Again and again the 
tears would flow, and the words of the sweet hymn burst out 
from the lips, 

" O, garden of Olives, thou dear, honored spot, 
The fame of thy glory shall ne'er be forgot ; 
The theme most transporting to seraphs above, 
The triumph of sorrow, the triumph of love." 

Bro. Errett has, in his matchless manner, expressed all 
our feelings on our visit to Gethsemane: "Descending the 
mount — which, indeed, is nothing more than a ridge — we 
came to the Garden of Gethsemane at its base. This, if not 
the actual site of Gethsemane, must be very near it. There 
are still some very old olive trees — three of them with three 
trunks or main branches each. These are called the Tree of 
the Agony, the Tree where Judas betrayed his Master with a 



JERICHO TO JERUSALEM. 289 

kiss, and the tree under which the three disciples slept. All 
this is, of course, fanciful. Olive trees live to be a thousand 
years old. Indeed, however often the branches and trunks 
die down, the roots still live, and a new and vigorous life may 
again shoot forth. It is not impossible, therefore, that these 
trees are, at the roots, the same as those in the shade of which 
our Lord prostrated himself in his agony ; but it is not prob- 
able. But under some such trees as these, and somewhere 
near here, that remarkable agony took place. We promised that 
our narrative should be as strictly and severely accurate as 
possible. We therefore say that while we had no pecuhar 
emotions on entering Jerusalem, nor even in looking on it 
from Mt. Olivet ; while we visited the Church of the Holy 
Sepulcher without one tender emotion, and were filled with so 
deep a disgust at the manifest frauds practiced on the people 
— a disgust which checked all our emotion even when we vis- 
ited Golgotha ; while even Bethlehem and Bethany excited 
only a lively interest, in Gethsemane the. tears flowed unbidden, 
and it was difficult to suppress an overwhelming gush of 
emotion. The venerable olive trees, the moonlight and shadow 
deep down here under the lofty walls and frowning battle- 
ments of Jerusalem — the Man of Sorrows in His baptism of 
suffering — the sleeping disciples, the piercing cry, the bloody 
sweat, the approaching mob with Judas at their head : all this 
came before us, and the 'strong cryings and tears ' of the lone 
Sufferer, as billow after billow of despair rolled over him and 
submerged him, the strong angel that came down to fan him 
with his wings and nerve him with courage, appears as if it 
were going on before our eyes, and we entered into ' the fel- 
lowship of his sufferings ' as never before. We were com- 
pelled to turn away to hide our emotion. Blessed Jesus! 
how thy pure heart was wrung with anguish for sins not thine 
own ! How chill the shadow of death that here passed over 
Thee ! How terrible the temptation which Satan made to 
sweep with tempest-power over Thee ! How fearful the bat- 
tle that was fought with the powers of darkness, and how glori- 
ous the victory won ! and all this that, through thy dread sac- 
rifice, the world that scorned Thee mioht be redeemed ! 



290 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE 



Mighty strife — glorious victory! The 'Leader and Com- 
mander ' who here faced the terrors of death and hell that He 
might open the way through thickest darkness and mighiest 
opposition for the redemption of guilty man, and bear him out 
of darkness into light, out of death into life, and would not be 
driven back even by the terrors and shame of the cross as it 
cast its terrible shadow over His spirit — what do we not owe 
to Him? how can we even speak His grace as we ought? We 
plucked a few twigs of the olive trees by permission, and 
turned away from the garden with chastened heart." 

The valley of Kidron lies just west of the garden and between 
it and the eastern wall of the city, A road runs down the 
brookside next to the garden. We took this road after leav- 
ing the garden, and soon found ourselves in front of a large 
tower hewn out of the solid rock, about twenty feet square at 
the base and towering up nearly fifty feet. The base only is 
hewn out of the rock for about twenty feet. The remainder is 
a stone superstructure. It is very ancient, and is called 

Absalom's Tomb. It is sup- 
posed to be referred to in II. 
Sam. xviii. 18, "Now Absa- 
lom in his lifetime had taken 
and reared up for himself a 
- pillar, which is in the king's 
?dale: for he said, I have no 
son to keep my name in re- 
membrance : and he called 
the pillar after his own name : 
and it is called unto this day 
Absalom's place. " The base 
is hollow, and may have been 
It has four holes upon its 
As each funeral 




ABSALOM S PILLAR. 



designed and used for a tomb 

four sides. It is now nearly full of stones 

procession passes by, going down the valley of Jehoshaphat, the 

mourners stone Absalom's pillar, as they can not stone him 

nor his descendants. Many of the stones go inside, and they 

have thus accumulated till it is nearly full. At first ?)lush it 

seems like a foolish act, yet upon reflection I think the reader 



JERICHO TO JERUSALEM. 



291 



will agree that it is full of meaning. It is a constant com- 
mitment of the rising generation against the sin of Absalom. 
I don't know that it hurts Absalom, but it must fix upon the 
heart of him who does it the awful wickedness of David's 
beautiful but heartless child. A little grave stoning might work 
well in our country if done in the proper spirit and manner. 

A short distance down the valley of the Jehoshaphat (Kidron) 
are the tombs of James, the first bishop of the Jerusalem church, 
and Zacharias, slain " between the altar and the temple." This 







TOMBS OF JAMES ANU ZACHARIAS. 



latter is very similar to that of Absalom, but not so high, being 
a trifle less than thirty feet in height. The cutting is quite re- 
markable. On the south side can still be seen the holes which sup- 
ported the scaffolding of the workmen. From this tomb down to 
the village of Siloam, the valley on both sides of the brook is 
lined with graves, both of Moslems and Jews, it being esteemed 
a great privilege to be buried in this historic place. Many rich 
Jews, in all quarters of the world, make provision for their 
interment here. The modern village of Siloam lies upon the 
eastern side of the valley and opposite the southeastern corner 
of the city. Many of the people live in rock tombs, which 



292 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



were once a part of the ancient Jewish necropolis. They are 
all Moslems, but will readily show their homes for "Back- 
sheesh," which seems to be the "open sesame " to this whole 
country. The Pool of Siloam lies across the Kidron from the 
village, and is, therefore, just outside the Jerusalem wall. It 
is still flowing, and the villagers obtain their water supply 
from it. It is, however, in a ruinous state of decay. The 
dog-fennel, and other weeds, line its crumbling banks, and 
all sorts of rubbish have fallen into it. I can never again sing, 
"with the spirit," the sentiment that formerly fired my soul — 

" By cool Siloam's shady rill 
How fair the lily grows !" 

There is neither " lily fair " nor " dewy rose " anywhere 
to be seen ; but, notwithstanding its present repulsive appear- 




POOL OF SILOAM AND GARDEN BELOW. 



ance, I feel that it must have appeared very beautiful to the 
poor blind man, to whom our Saviour said, "Go, wash in the 
Pool of Siloam [which is, by interpretation, sent]. He went 
his way, therefore, and washed, and came seeing." To the 



JERICHO TO JERUSALEM. 293 

south of the pool stands an old miilberry tree, protected by an 
enclosure of stones. It is called " Isaiah's Tree," because this 
is supposed to be the spot where the prophet Isaiah was sawn 
asunder in the presence of King Manasseh. Following down 
the valley of Jehoshaphat a little further, we come to a little 
plain, where the valley of Hinnom, which encircles the south- 
west wall of the city, meets the former valley. Here we have 
a good view of the Potters' field of En-rogel, where Jonathan 
waited for intelligence to convey to David, and also 
where Adonijah celebrated his coronation feast. The hill of 
Evil Counsel is also in view. From here we turned up the 
valley of Hinnom. It is a narrow, deep, and rocky ravine, 
lying to the south and west of the city, separating Mt. Zion 
from the Plain of Rephaim. 

It was within this valley that King Solomon built the high 
places to Molech. Other idolatrous kings followed his 
wicked example, till it culminated in Ahaz and Manasseh, who 
spared not their own sons, " but made them to pass through 
fire, according to the abominations of the heathen." The good 
King Josiah laid his hand upon these wicked places and un- 
fatherly practices, in a way that was thorough. " He defiled 
Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, 
that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass 
through the fire unto Molech." "He took away the high 
places that were before Jerusalem." Thus, in time, this place 
became very odious among the Jews, and finally took the name 
of Ge-Hinnom, or Gehenna, and became a symbol of eternal 
torment. Its scenery seemed to me to be of a different and 
more unearthly character than any other part of the holy city. 
I do not believe it to be entirely the result of early prejudice, 
for I find another writer, who has forcibly put my sentiments : 
"There is something in the scenery of this valley and the hill 
above it, its tombs hewn in the rock, long since tenantless, the 
grey gloom of its old fig and olive trees starting from the fis- 
sures of the crags, the overhanging wall of Zion, desolate 
almost as in the time of her captivity, that forcibly recalls the 
wild and mournful grandeur of her prophetic writings," 

Riding up the valley, we entered upon the road leading 



294 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



from Bethlehem, and at the juncture we passed a group of 
lepers, with their clubbed feet and hands, and bleared eyes, 
ghstening skins, bloated lips, from which issued a guttural cry 
for alms that would touch a heart of stone. O, it was pitiful 
to see the frenzied fury with which they would strive for any 
money that might be thrown them ! The upper end of the 
valley of Hinnom is known as the Valley of Gihon, and in the 
accompanying illustration is shown the road leading out of the 
valley, up to the Jaffa gate. 




THE VALLEY OF GIHON. 



Late on Saturday evening, we entered the Jaffa gate, 
ready for a good dinner at the Mediterranean Hotel, 
and still more so for the mail from home that had ar- 
rived during our absence. The next morning, it was de- 
cided that we hold a communion service. Bro. George T. 
Smith, our missionary to Japan, who arrived Saturday evening, 
on his way to America for a short visit, was with us, and also 



JERICHO TO JERUSALEM. 295 

a Bro. Elkarey, who was baptized by Bro. J. T. Barclay in the 
Pool of Siloam, but who has been working with the Baptists 
since the breaking up of our mission, was present, and greatly 
delighted to be able to worship with brethren and sisters of his 
early choice. It has been generally felt by our brotherhood 
that Bro. Barclay's mission to Jerusalem was a failure ; but 
when we are informed that there is a church in ancient 
Shechem known by no other name than the Church of Christ, 
and meeting on the first day of the week, to observe the ordi- 
nances of the Lord's house; also that there is a missionary in 
the Island of Cyprus, a man of culture and power, preaching 
only Christ and his word, and that all this is the direct result 
of that mission, we may see that what we have been led to 
believe was an inglorious failure, has proven a marvelous suc- 
cess. 'Ihej'e can be ?iO failures in an undertaking for the 
advancement of Christ's kingdom on earth. Bro. Errett, of 
course, presided. The writer read the institution of the Lord's 
Supper, and Bro. J. T. Toof led in a most fervent prayer of 
gratitude and thankfulness. 

Bro. Errett then read from the nth chapter of Corinthians, 
and after dwelling upon the sweetness and preciousness of the 
institution, as he alone can, administered the Supper. Bro. 
Moore followed in a touching and eloquent speech upon the 
human side of our Saviour's life. Bro. Smith also spoke of 
the spirit of self-sacrifice in the life of our Saviour, in such a 
tender way as to make us all feel that he spoke out of his own 
experience. In short, all spoke, not even forgetting dear Sis- 
ter Toof, mother of our Bro. J. T. Toof, who, though she 
spoke but a few simple words, yet conveyed the rich depth of 
feeling that lay in her heart, in so clear a manner as to bring 
tears to all eyes. It was an occasion never to be forgotten, 
and one which I expect to nerve me to greater diligence and 
earnestness in many an hour of despondency in days to come. 

In the same city, on Mt. Zion, in an upper room, if not 
upon the precise spot, certainly very near, wh-ere the Lord's 
Supper was given, to thus meet and celebrate his honor and 
glory, was a privilege indeed ! And yet there was all the 
while the knowledge that even thus shadowed by sacred as- 



296 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE 

sociations and holy memories, we were no nearer to Christ 
than thousands of our dear -friends that would celebrate his 
death the same day in America. We are thankful to God that 
places are no longer sacred in themselves. God is a spirit, and 
is near only to them that worship in spirit and in truth. The 
Lord's day in Jerusalem is now but little more than any other 
day. Friday is the Moslem Sabbath, Saturday the Jewish, and, 
as there are but few Christians, what Lord's-day observances 
there is does not make any change in the business habits of 
the people. The stores, shops, and markets, are all open, 
and trade moves on in its undisturbed course. 

We greatly regretted that we could not also attend a service 
held at the same time upon the Mount of Olives. Quite a 
large party of tourists assembled there, and were addressed by 
that man of God, Dr. J. H. Vincent, now Bishop Vincent — a 
man to whom the whole Christian world owes a debt for the 
founding of the great system of Christian instruction at Chau- 
tauqua, New York. But as they did not celebrate the Com- 
munion, and as we greatly preferred such a service, we chose 
the quiet and seclusion of our upper chamber on Mt. Zion. 



IN JERUSALEM. 

Monday and Tuesday were spent in viewing scenes in and 
around Jerusalem. One great feature of interest was the great 
variety ot peoples and trades grouped together in such strange 
mixture. Geikie has given a most graphic picture of the city : 
" To walk through the sloping, roughly paved, narrow streets 
of the modern Jerusalem, seemed, in the unchanging East, to 
bring back again those of the old Bible city. One could notice 
the characteristics of rich and poor, old and young, townspeo- 
ple and country folks, of both sexes, as they streamed in 
many-colored confusion through the bazaars and lane-like 
streets. The well-to-do townspeople delight to wear as great 
a variety of clothes as they can afford, and as costly as their 
purse allows. Besides their under linen and several light jack- 
ets and vests, they have two robes reaching the ankles, one of 
cloth, the other of cotton or silk. A costly girdle holds the 
inner long robe together, and in it merchants always stick the 
silver or brass pen or ink-case. A great signet ring is indis- 
pensable, as it was already in the days of Judah. . . . The 
seal is used in the East, in ways peculiar to those regions — to 
seal up doors, gates, fountains, and tombs. The entrance to 
the den of lions was sealed upon Daniel with the signet of the 
king and his lords." 

The guard made the sepulcher of our Lord "sure, sealing 
the stone." The peasant is clad much more simply. Over his 
shirt he draws only an "Abba" of camel's or goat's-hair 
cloth, with sleeves or without, striped white and brown, or 
white and black. It was, one may think, just such a coat 
which Christ referred to when he told the Apostles not to 
carry a second. Many peasants have not even an Abba, but 
content themselves with a blue shirt, reaching their calves, and 

this they gird round them with a leather strap, or a sash, as 

297 



298 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



the fishermen did in the time of St. Peter. If he has any 
money, the peasant carries it in the Hning of his girdle ; and 
hence the command to the Apostles, that they were to 

take no money in their girdles. 
Elijah and John the Baptist 
wore leathern girdles ; Jer- 
emiah had one of linen. It is 
thus still with country people, 
but the townsfolk indulge 
themselves in costly sashes. 
The water-carriers, who bend 
under their huge goat-skin 
bags of the precious fluid, sell- 
ing it to any customers in the 
streets whom they may at- 
tract by their cry, or by the 
ringing of a small bell, or tak 
ing it to houses, are the most 
meanly clad of any citizens. 

But to-day is the one fixed 
upon for our visit to the Haram. 
es-sheriff, and we must not loiter. This is by far the most 
sacred spot in the whole city. Around it cluster a multitude 
of legends — Moslem, Jewish, and Christian. 

It is here that Oman's threshing-floor was located. Here 
Abraham, in offering his son on Mt. Moriah to the Lord, ex- 
hibited that sublime trust that has made him "the father of 
the faithful." Here David plead with God for the afflicted 
people of Israel. Here stood Solomon's temple, with its 
marble walls rising over the city, as a guardian angel against 
idolatry, apostasy, or indifference. In that temple God's pres- 
ence was manifested in the Shekinah. Here centered the 
worship and solemn convocation of all Israel. Here broke 
forth the wail of anguish from the Jewish heart, which has 
gone round the world with wandering Israel, and tells mourn- 
fully that the abomination of desolation stands in the Holy 
Place. To the Christian it is forever holy, because upon this 




PEASANTRY. 



"WiSiF^ 






illlllillliilliliillllllilllilllflilip 




IN JERUSALEM. 3OI 

spot the Saviour stood and taught ; while the Moslem regards 
it as the spot whence Mahomet ascended to heaven. 

As you enter the Gate of the Chain, leading in from the 
city, you are almost fronting the Mosque of Omar, so-called, 
because it is said that Caliph Omar built it upon the site of the 
temple. It is octagonal in shape, 152 feet in diameter and over 
500 feet in circumference. The walls are thirty-five feet high, 
and are covered with various-colored marbles and tilings, while 
the windows are filled with stained glass of rare beauty. The 
interior is gloomy and disappointing ; but no work of art would 
impress a traveler who, for the first time in his life, stands 
before the sacred rock which forms the summit of Mount 
Moriah. 

Amid all the changes which it has witnessed, the rock has 
ever been the same. Its present surface is about forty-five 
by sixty feet. It bears the marks of the chisel and rough 
treatment. There is in it a circular hole, which many claim 
bore away the blood from the temple -altar to the brook Kid- 
ron. There is a cavern beneath it, which the Mohammedans 
say was formed by the rock starting to follow the Prophet 
when he ascended to heaven. It would have gone but for 
the timely intervention of the Angel Gabriel, who caught and 
held it back. As conclusive evidence, his grip is shown upon 
the rock to-day. Inside the cavern, they will show you the 
praying places of Mohammed, Solomon, Elijah, David, and 
Abraham, notwithstanding the trifling circumstances that, ac- 
cording to their own story, the cave was not made till Mo- 
hammed started to heaven. In the center of the floor is a slab, 
covering the Well of Spirits, into which all spirits descend, 
and out of which they will finally be " yanked " by the tufts of 
hair on their heads. They seem to make no provision for 
bald-headed spirits. The next building in the inclosure is the 
Mosque-el-Aksa — supposed to be identical with the basilica 
erected by Justinian in honor of the Virgin Mary. 

Here the traveler is shown where the sons of Aaron are 
buried ; zvhcre Moses prayed ; the imprint of Christ's foot ; where 
Omar made his first prayer after entering tTie city — two pillars 
placed about eight inches apart. Pilgrims who can pass be- 



302 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



tween them are sure of a place in heaven, while those who 
can not are marked "doubtful. " Every pilgrim tries it, and 
so did we ; but we don't believe the story, nor do we suppose 








MOSQUE EL AKSA. 

the reader does. So he will not be interested in whether we 
got through. Between the Mosques of Omar and El Aksa is a 
marble fountain called El Kas, or The Qip. Beneath this 
fountain are the immense cisterns where was stored the water 
brought from Solomon's Pools. Some suppose that here was 
located the " Molten Sea, of ten cubits from brim to brim, 
and the thickness of it was an hand breadth, 
and the brim of it like the work of a brim of a cup.'' 
The cisterns are still called the Cisterns of the Sea. At 
the southeast corner of the Haram we descended by thirty- 
two steps into a small chamber, said to have been occupied 
by the infant Christ when brought to Jerusalem. Here Sim- 
eon dwelt, and here also they show you the cradle of 
Christ. From this we descended again to the vaulted cham- 
bers which doubtless were made by Solomon, when the temple 
area was formed — called King Solomon's Stables. ' ' Solomon, " 
the Bible tells us, " had forty thousand stalls of horses for his 



IN JERUSALEM. 5O3 

chariots." There are still rings in the stones for hitching pur- 
poses. The stone work of this place bears the same marks as 
the earliest work found around Jerusalem. Returning to the 




CISTERNS OF THE SEA. 



surface, we passed along the east wall and looked over into the 
Valley of Jehoshaphat, filled with the graves of pious Israel- 
ites of all generations. They desire to be buried here because 
of Joel's prophecy: " I will gather all nations, and will bring 
them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will plead 
with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, 
whom they have scattered among the nations and parted my 
land. " ''Let the heathen be wakened and come up to the Val- 
ley of Jehoshaphat, for there will I sit to judge all the heathen 
round about. " Protruding from the wall is a broken column, on 
which the Prophet is to sit and judge the world ; to this a cord 
will be fastened and stretched east to the summit of Olives. This 
cord will have many weak places, no stronger than a hair, and 
all who enter Paradise must cross it^ bearing their loads of sin. 
Under these circumstances, there is simply no show at all for 
the sinner, and the righteous who get over will have to out- 
do Blondin in his happiest days. A little north is the Golden 
Gate— the Beautiful Gate — where Peter and John healed the 



304 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE 



lame man, while still beyond is a small Mosque, called the 
Throne of Solomon. Here, according to a legend. King Solo- 
mon was found dead. Standing in the open court of the Mos- 




SUBSTRUCTIONS AT THE SOUTHEAST CORNER OF THE 

HAR^AM. 

que of Omar is a building called the Judgment Seat of David. 
It is sometimes called the Dome of the Chain, from the legend 
that a chain was let down here from heaven, and to it litigants 
would come and to which one the chain would move, the 
judge might know the right belonged. What a pity that 
simple manner of judgment has been displaced by the vexa- 
tious delays of the law. 

The saddest transaction which ever took place upon this 
spot, was the destruction of Herod's Temple by the Romans, 
A. D. 70. Eugene Lawrence has told the story in such graphic 
way that I prefer his, to any description I could give of that 
event : 

" A cloud of horror now rested upon the Holy City. Its 
condition resembled that of Paris in the dreadful days of ter- 




ROMAN SOLDIERS FIRING THE TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM. 



Page 305 



IN JERUSALEM. 307 

ror, when the prisons were filled with the suspected, the scaf- 
fold ran with blood, and robbers and miscreants had risen to 
rule in the fatal despair that had fallen upon its people. The 
Christian Church had fled from the city, warned by the proph- 
ecies of their Master, and found refuge in the little town of 
Pella, beyond Jordan. . . . The Passover drew near, and 
in the first days of April, in the year 'jo, the Jews gathered in 
multitudes at Jerusalem, to celebrate for the last time the most 
sacred festival of the law. The poor remnants of a fallen na- 
tion, they yet filled once more the desecrated courts of the 
Temple. Still the priests performed with sad minuteness the 
various rites ; still in the midst of the raging factions the smoke 
of the burnt offerings arose from the holy altar, and the Psalms 
of David resounded through the inner sanctuary ; still the count- 
less worshipers made their way through the streets filled with 
the dead and the dying, and went up to the Temple to 
pra>. .■ . . . Jerusalem was renowned as the strong- 
est of ancient cities. Two impassable valleys nearly surrounded 
the hill of Zion and Mount Moriah. On the north a triple wall 
and the CaStle of Antonia seemed to provide an easy means of 
defense. 

" The city was filled with munitions of war, and food was at 
first abundant. The Jews, in their last struggle, showed all 
the chivalry of the Semitic race ; they fought with unrivalled 
courage; they suffered with unconquerable patience; priests, 
warriors, people, showed their proud contempt of death, their 
unchanging devotion to their country, their faith in the ritual 
and the law. They fell by thousands in fierce sallies, often 
successful; they inflicted terrible losses on the foe ; they were 
always happy in death when their enemies died with them. 
Yet Titus, with his well-trained legions, made constant prog- 
ress. He soon broke down the outer walls, and burned or 
pillaged all the lower part of the city. Often the learned Jo- 
sephus was sent to address his countrymen from the Roman 
works, offering them pardon and life if they would surrender ; 
always the suffering garrison refused to listen to the traitor. 
They shot at him with their arrows. At last an enemy ap- 
peared within the city more dreadful than the Romans. Titus 



308 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

had raised around Jerusalem a long wall that shut out all ex- 
terior aid, and famine raged in the homes of the rich and 
poor. The summer of the year 70 passed in horror over the 
ruined city. As the hot sun beat on its pestilential streets, as 
vegetation withered, and only the gray and dusty olive lived 
in the torrid heat, men, women, children died in their stately 
houses ; and robbers, fierce and starving, snatched the last loaf 
from the hearth of the poor. 

"The woes of Jerusalem seemed to Josephus to have sur- 
passed those of every other city ; the terrors of the siege awoke 
a thrill of pity in his vain and selfish breast. Yet happier, 
perhaps, the Jews who died with simple faith for their God 
and their country, than the stately historian, the friend of an 
emperor who wrote in a Roman palace an unsympathizing nar- 
rative of their woes In the season of fruit, the 

month of Ab, the irreparable woe fell upon the children of 
Israel. Titus had pressed on his slow approaches all through 
the summer. He had heard with no compunction of the hor- 
rors within the city. He was told that Mary, the wealthy 
matron, had cooked and perhaps devoured her own infant ; 
he appealed to God that he was innocent of the dreadful deed. 
His engineers made their way into the castle of Antonia ; he 
prepared to storm the Temple. He knew that around it cen- 
tered the fanaticism of the Jews, and he gave orders for its de- 
struction, A general assault was made. John of Gisgala, the 
patriots, and the priests, fought with terrible resolution in its 
defense. The skillful Romans, under the eye of Titus, forced 
their way into the sacred courts ; they climbed terrace after 
terrace, where the pavements were thickly strewn with the 
dying and the dead ; a soldier then threw a blazing torch into 
an open window of the Holy House. The priceless veils, the 
cedar beams, the gilded ornaments, blazed forth in a wild con- 
flagration ; th"; priests killed themselves before the altar, and 
the Temple of the Most High was consumed to ashes. A 
wail broke from the hapless Jews more sad than any their own 
sorrows had ever occasioned. It was repeated in desolate 
Galilee and wild Judea; in the distant synagogues of Alexan- 
dria and Rome. It has never ceased ; it still breaks forth from 



IN JERUSALEM. 3O9 

every Jewish heart ; and the most touching spectacle of mod- 
ern Jerusalem is that of the cowering Israelites, amidst the 
brutality of Turkish soldiers and the mockeries of Armenian 
boys, wailing over the crumbling foundations of what was once 
the most hallowed of earthly shrines." 



FROM JERUSALEM TO SHECHEM. 

At 7 A. M. we left Jerusalem for the long journey to Damas- 
cus, our party being re-inforced by a number of strangers, 
among whom were George T. Smith, our missionary to Japan, 
who was en route homeward. We passed out northward, leav- 
ing the Tombs of the Kings upon our left, and soon reached 
the summit of the hill Scopus, from which we took our last 
view of the Holy City — and one which is conceded by all to be 
the finest. It is a great pity the modern traveler can not obtain 
his first view of the city from this position. The first place on 
our left is the village of Shafat, which Mr. Porter identifies with 
Nob, the sacerdotal city of Benjamin, and where rested the 
Tabernacle and Ark in the days of King Saul. The name is a 
contraction of Jehoshaphat, by which it was known till within 
a few centuries. There is an old tomb, surmounted by a 
low, rude dome, around which cluster a few ruins, out of which 
a few fruit trees are struggling for existence. To this place 
David came when fleeing from the wrath of Saul, and was fed 
by Abimelech, the priest, and also supplied with the sword of 
Goliath, whom he had slain in the valley of Elah. The news 
was conveyed to Saul by Doeg, the Edomite, and the wrath of 
Saul was excited against the city, and both priest and citizens 
were destroyed with the sword. A short distance farther on 
to the right lies a strange-looking hill, rising cone-like to the 
height of perhaps 2,500 feet, with a mound upon its summit, 
recently demonstrated to be artificial. The purpose of this 
mound no one can tell, but its great sweep of the country, from 
the Dead Sea on the south-east, from Neby Samwil on the west, 
the broad valley of the Jordan on the east, and Ramah on the 
north, would indicate that it was used as a beacon light; and 
certainly no better location could have been found in all that 
region. This spot is identified with the ancient Gibeah, the 



FROM JERUSALEM TO SHECHEM. 



II 



birth-place of Saul, first king of Israel, and for a great part of 
his reign the seat of his government. Here were enacted one of 
the darkest tragedies in the early history of Hebrew life. A 
poor Levite was journeying from Bethlehem to his home in the 
far side of the hill country of Ephraim, and, as the night drew 




on, sought shelter in the public square of the place. "And, 
behold, there came an old man from his work, out of the field, 
at even, and he lifted up his eyes and saw the wayfaring man 
in the open place of the city ; and the old man said, Whither 
goest thou ? and whence comest thou ? And he said unto him, 
We are passing from Bethlehem-Judah into the farther side of 
the hill country of Ephraim ; from thence I am, and I went to 
Bethlehem-Judah, and I am now going home, and there is no 
man that taketh me into his house, yet there is both straw and 
provender for our asses, and there is bread and wine also for 
me, and thine handmaid, and for the young man which is with 
my servants ; there is no want of anything. And the old man 
said. Peace be unto thee ; howsoever, let all thy wants lie upon 
me ; only lodge not in the street. So he brought them into his 
house, and gave the asses fodder, and they washed their feet 



312 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE 

and did eat and drink." As they lodged in the, home of the 
hospitable old man the sons of Belial, in the village — for they 
are to be found in every village — surrounded the house, and 
beat upon it, and committed the awful crime which resulted in 
the death of the woman. The master then took her body, and 
cut it into twelve parts, and sent one to each of the tribes as a 
pledge of the truth of his story. They assembled at Mizpeh, 
and did not return home until the awful deed, the like of which 
had not been known in their national history, was avenged in 
the death of thousands of the Benjamites, and the almost total 
extinction of the tribe. In later days David permitted the 
Amorites to slay the two sons and five grandsons of Saul, who 
"hanged them on the hill before the Lord," by which it is 
supposed they were gibbeted, or stuck upon posts, after their 
death — a dark deed which serves as the background upon which 
to paint one of the most beautiful pictures of mother-love to be 
found in history. " Rizpah took sackcloth and spread it for 
her upon a rock, from the beginning of harvest until water 
dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the 
birds of the air to rest upon them by day, nor the beasts of the 
field by night." If I were a painter, it seems to me I could 
choose no more eloquent theme than the sorrowing mother 
during all the hot, dry summer, with the festering dead to pre- 
serve their very corruption from destruction and ravage by the 
sickening vulture or greedy jackal. The reader of the Bible 
will gladly remember that all this devotion was not in vain, for 
King David, learning of her undying devotion, was so touched 
by it as to give them honorable burial with their royal ancestry. 
Farther on in the journey, we passed the village of El-Ram, 
which some claim is the Ramah of Benjamin^ where was ful- 
filled the prophecy, " A voice was heard in Ramah, lamenta- 
tion and bitter weeping." As Ramah means "high place," 
and there are so many in the neighborhood, it was a little diffi- 
cult for the guide to convince us that any special one was the 
exact site. About four miles north of Ramah we came to El- 
Bireh, which is a village of nearly i,ooo inhabitants, and pos- 
sessing good accommodation for travelers in an excellent spring 
of pure, cold water, and a tolerably fair khan. There is an old 



FROM JERUSALEM TO SHECHEM. 313 

ruin of a church built upon the highest ground in the village, 
undoubtedly the work of the Crusaders. This is the Beeroth 
of the Bible, and the supposed camping-place where Mary and 
Joseph first missed the boy Jesus on their return to Nazareth. 
While no great importance can be attached to the tradition, it is 
one that corresponds both by distance and natural advantages 
to the spot, and has undoubtedly been the camping-place for 
travelers in all ages. From El-Bireh it is not more than two 
miles to Bethel, where we were to rest for the noonday lunch, 
and which we reached about 11:30 A. m. 

Bethel is a wretched and desolate place, consisting of a few 
hovels, in which exist about 500 persons, as mean looking as 
the town itself At the foot of the village is a small valley, the 
bottom of which has been a pool, shown by the walls which 
still remain. In the bottom of this reservoir we found our lunch 
tent pitched, and were glad enough to surrender our horses to 
one of our "boys" and partake of the refreshments it always 
contained in such bountiful supply, ^During the noon hour, we 
walked up into the village and climbed up a rickety stairway 
that led to the flat roof of a square building located upon the 
summit of the hill. The actual view is not very fine — rolling, 
billowy earth-waves, covered over almost entirely with greyish 
looking stones, out from the fissures in which rose a small, 
stunted growth of coarse herbage. It was only through the tel- 
escope of faith that we could rise to any sublimity in the survey, 
and then we could exclaim with the patriarch, "Surely God is in 
this place, and I knew it not." When Abram put his hand in 
God's, and went out under the stars of heaven, "not knowing 
whither he went," content that God's hand should lead him, 
this was one of the places to which he first cam,e in the land of 
promise. It was then called Luz, but obtained the name of 
Bethel later on, when Jacob, wearied with the fatigpe of the 
long journey from the south, " took the stones of that place 
and put them for his pillows, and lay down on that place to 
sleep." It was here he had that wonderful vision of the mys- 
tic ladder, one end of which was embosomed in the glory of 
heaven, and the other rested on one of these rocky hills at our 
feet. It was here he made the solemn but selfish vow that con- 



314 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

secrated him to God, provided God would do a great many 
good things to him. Next to Shechem, it is the oldest sacred 
place in the land, and naturally enough Jeroboam sought to 
make it a center of idolatry to wean the Jews away from Jeru- 
salem. Here he set up the Golden Calf, the destruction of 
which, with its attendant altar, foretold by the nameless prophet 
of the Lord in such dramatic way as to be almost unrivalled 
in the Sacred Book. The prophet stands, and with quivering 
lip and flashing eye pours out his curses upon the altar, not 
deigning even to notice the apostate king. Suddenly the altar 
is rent asunder and its ashes scattered by a powerful but un- 
seen hand. As Jeroboam reaches out his hand to protest, it 
is withered, only to be restored by the supplication of the un- 
known prophet of God. After the return from captivity, 
Bethel again becomes the property of the Benjamites. In later 
days it was captured by Vespasian, since which it has been but 
an insignificant village. It is not so much as named by any 
New Testament writer, and seems at that time to have fulfilled 
the predictions made concerning it: "The sin of Israel shall 
be destroyed ; the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their 
altars. For thus saith the Lord, Seek me, and ye shall live ; 
but seek not Bethel. . . . Bethel shall come to naught." 
These reflections and others came into our minds while over- 
looking this wonderful locality ; but already the Arabs have 
folded our lunch tent and are stealing away, and it is time to be 
in the saddle. As one sees the rapidity with which the Arabs 
take down a tent which may be standing entire, and in five 
minutes ' time be folded and upon the back of a pack mule, how 
strikingly does it illustrate the words of the Bible concerning 
the flight of earthly years, "Mine age is departed, and is re- 
moved from me as a shepherd's tent." 

For several miles after leaving Bethel the way is quite rough 
and stony, but passing into Ephraim we reached one of the love- 
liest and most fertile portions of Palestine. The vineyards and 
orchards crown every hill and fill every valley. They have the 
appearance that comes of good care, being surrounded with 
good stone walls that would compare with those in the heart of 
Kentucky and Tennessee. There are many appearances of an- 



FROM JERUSALEM TO SHECHEM, 315 

cient prosperity in this part of the land. On one of the hill- 
sides I counted no less than the ruins of seventeen terraces, 
showing that what is now comparatively barren was once one 
of the most fertile of countries. This is only a confirmation of 
Jacob's language of blessing, " A fruitful bough, even a fruitful 
bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall ; blessed 
of the Lord be his land [Ephraim], for the precious things of 
heaven, for the dev/, and for the deep that coucheth beneath, 
and for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for 
the precious things put forth by the moon." 

About 4 p. M. we passed down into a most delightful little 
valley, almost a canyon, which was the most picturesque In 
landscape in all Palestine. A huge, beetling cliff rises upon our 
left, at the base of which trickles down a splendid spring of 
water. Ferns grow out of the rocks, together with numerous 
green plants. Owing to the exceedingly bad character of the 
people in the vicinity, it is called the Robbers' Fountain. 

It was just in front of this fountain that Brother Errett's 
noble "Ship of the Mountains," the Palanquin, was stranded 
for the first time. In crossing the ravine the front mule was 
obliged to make a sharp turn to the left, in order to ascend the 
opposite bank ; the rear mule doggedly stuck to the track, 
which brought the Palanquin high and dry upon an intervening 
rock. It looked for a moment as though she would shift her 
cargo ; but by great bravery upon the part of the captain and 
mate, the front and rear muleteers, she was righted without 
even the ripping of a plank. 

Leaving the Robbers' Fountain, it was but a short ride of 
perhaps two miles out to our camping-place for the first day out 
from Jerusalem. It was a glorious day, and one to stamp 
itself forever upon the memory of the traveler. The next 
morning the tim-tom bell woke us quite early, and after breakfast 
we took our departure for Nablous. Diverting our way to the 
right of the main road, we soon reached Shiloh. It is now a 
mass of ruins, passing under the Arabic name of Seilun. Bar- 
ren and desolate as it now is, what remarkable associations 
cluster around it ? Here the tabernacle was reared — and the land 
divided among^ the twelve tribes. Around this old well the 



3i6 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



daughters of Shiloh danced in the yearly festival, when the sons 
of Benjamin sprang out from their covert and carried away every 
man a wife. A portion of the plain near here is still called 
"The Meadow of the Feast," probably in commemoration of 




the event. This was the home of Eli ; and here dwelt in his 
house the boy Samuel, who ministered before the Lord. Here 
the wicked sons of Eli, Phineas and Hophni, disgraced their 
good but weak father by their profligacy. From here was car- 
ried the Ark of God, to be captured by the Philistines ; and 



FROM JERUSALEM TO SHECHEM. 31/ 

upon one of these slopes the aged priest sat with beating heart 
to learn the first news of the battle. He heard, and with it 
the doom of his house and the desolation of the house of the 
Lord. The Philistines destroyed the whole place after the 
capture of the Ark, though the coverings of the sanctuary- 
were saved and taken to Nob, 

Dr. Geike has given a most graphic description of the place: 
" An oak, though of course not like those of England for size, 
gave dignity to the spot, and threw a shadow over a small half- 
ruined Mohammedan mosque. Not higher than fifteen or 
twenty feet the inner space had once been vaulted. Two 
chambers, supported on short pillars, with a prayer-niche to the 
south, filled up the thirty-seven feet of its length. Part of it 
was evidently very old ; the rest spoke of different dates and 
materials gathered from various sources. The capital of one of 
the pillars rested on a disproportionately thick shaft, and two 
pieces of marble, each about a yard long, were built into one 
of the walls. The flat lintel over the doorway bore signs-, by 
its ornaments, of having done service in an ancient synagogue, 
or rock tomb. A stair led up, inside, to the roof, which was 
overgrown with rank weeds, among which were many bright 
flowers. The walls were, in parts, not less than four feet thick ; 
elsewhere, only half as thick. This strange place may have 
been originally a Jewish tomb ; certainly it can not have been a 
Christian Church. The crown of the low hill was especially 
interesting, for it is covered with very old, low walls, divided as 
though into the basements of many chambers of different sizes. 
Some of the stones were hewn, others unhewn, and some of the 
latter were very large. The outline of the whole was an irregu- 
lar square, of say about eighty feet, with projections on two 
sides, the walls being everywhere very thick. Could it be 
that these were the stone foundations on which, as we know, 
the ancient Tabernacle was raised ? Had the pillars in the 
mosque near at hand been taken from these ruins ? Were these 
low walls within remains of the chambers where Eli and Samuel 
had once lived? Were these rock-hewn sepulchers we had 
seen in the small valley to the east, the ancient resting-places of 
the family of the ill-fated high priest?" 



3l8 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

As we looked upon the ruins that covered the sunny slope 
with broken columns and piles of stone, we beheld another re- 
markable fulfillment of prophecy. Jeremiah used Shiloh as a 
type of Jerusalem. 's destruction : " Go ye now unto my place, 
which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see 
what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel: and 
now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and 
I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard 
not ; and I called ye, but ye answered not; therefore will I do 
unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust; 
and to the place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I 
have done to Shiloh ; . . , I will make this house like 
Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse to all the nations of 
the earth." 

Leaving Shiloh, we rode along the open plain in the Valley 
of Shiloh. Here was the only place in the East where I met 
with a field of maize, our old-fashioned corn of America, and, 
though it looked weakly and sickly, much like our pop-corn, it 
was as the face of an old friend. In this plain our Sister Toof 
came near losing her life by being thrown over her horse's head. 
She was quite severely hurt, but fortunately having a doctor in 
our crowd, she was enabled, by the timely assistance of some 
of his remedies, to proceed with us. We passed, about two or 
three miles from Shiloh on our left, the village of Lubban — an- 
cient Lebonah— one of the places from whence the wine used 
in the temple service was procured. This, in later times, gave 
some trouble to the righteous Pharisees, because, being so 
near the borders of Samaria, they were fearful lest some hated 
Samaritan dust should blow upon the grapes or into the wine- 
prei'ses of the true Israel. Soundness gone to seed, as it some- 
times does now-a-days ! 

It is not long till we entered upon the broad mountain- 
hemmed plain of Samaria. On the left rises the bald, rocky 
crown of Gerizim, partly hiding its neighbor Ebal. Far away 
in the hazy distance toward the north, rises the Goliath of Pal- 
estine mountains — Hermon — clad still in its ermine of snow, 
while on every hand is fertility. Women were seen in the rich 
fields, cutting green fodder for the cattle. They did not even 



FROM JERUSALEM TO SHECHEM. 



319 



have an old-fashioned reap-hook, but used straight knives; and 
each one, by dint of hard work, seemed to be able to cut it 
about as rapidly as an average cow could eat. I longed to 
possess the magic power to transport those poor women out to 
our Minnesota or Dakota prairies, and let them see, for just 
once, how they do it out West. 




HOW THEY DO IT OUT WEST. 



Upon the soft earth of this plain we felt that we could can- 
ter, and we were all soon in a run — the first in our long journey. 
Three or four miles farther on, the valley of Shechem opens out 
into the plain. At the southern side of this valley, and at the 
intersection of the two, is the little city of Balata. This means 
the "Tree of Grace, " or "Holy Oak." Jerome identifies this 
spot with the " Oak of Moreh," or, as it is rendered, Plain of 
Moreh, in Genesis, where Abraham built the first altar to God 
after entering the promised land. Here also Jacob buried the 
false gods his beloved Rachel brought with her from the house 
of her father, Laban. Joshua, when Canaan had been re- 
entered by the seed of Abraham, set up "a great stone under 
an oak that was by the sanctuary of God, " to be a witness that 
had "heard all the words of the Lord which he spake." Near 
by is the well of Jacob, dug by that patriarch, doubtless, to 
render him independent of the gushing springs of his neighbors 
that flowed from the base of Gerizim. MacLeod says of it : 
"The well is not what we understand by that name. It is not 



320 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

a spring of water bubbling up from the earth, nor is it reached 
by an excavation. It is a shaft cut into the Hving rock, about 
nine feet in diameter, and now upwards of seventy feet deep. 
As an immense quantity of rubbish has fallen into it, the origi- 
nal depth must have been much greater, probably twice, what 
it is now. It was therefore intended by its first engineer as a 
reservoir, rather than as a means for reaching a spring. Then 
again, if any wall, as some suppose, once surrounded its mouth, 
on which the traveler could rest, it is. now gone. The mouth 
is funnel-shaped, and its sides are formed by the rubbish of old 
buildings, a church having once been erected over it. But we 
can descend this funnel and enter a cave, as it were, a few feet 
below the surface, which is the remains of a small dome that 
once covered the mouth. Descending a few feet, we perceive 
in the floor an aperture, partly covered by a flat stone, and 
leaving sufficient space through which we can look into the 
darkness. This is one of the few spots in Palestine where the 
traveler is not harrowed by any doubts, for we are not aware 
that the identity of this well has ever been questioned. A 
number of our party descended to the stone covering, and by 
shutting out the light from above, could readily distinguish the 
stones at the bottom which the travelers cast into it to hear the 
echo when they strike the bottom. One of our party, Mr. 
Bond, of Nova Scotia, accidentally let his Bible fall into it, 
which caused some merriment in the party at his expense. To 
descend into the well is a very hazardous experiment. Capt. 
Anderson tried it some twenty years since, and after passing 
into it fainted, and did not recover consciousness till, after he 
had lain some time upon the stones at the bottom. Twenty 
years previous an Arab boy descended into it, and brought up 
a Bible that had lain there three years, and it was in a perfectly 
dry condition when brought out. To project such an enterprise 
in the days of the patriarch was, no doubt, as great an under- 
taking as the building of the Brooklyn Bridge to our century. 
It was upon the stone curbing of this well that our Saviour sat, 
travel-worn and heart-weary, while the disciples went to the 
little city of Sychar for provisions. Familiar as he was with 
the Old Testament, what a flood of recollections must have 



FROM JERUSALEM TO SHECHEM. 321 

passed in review before him ! He must have seen Abraham 
building the first altar ever erected to the true God on that 
soil. On the open plain at his feet the flocks of the Friend of 
God had pasture, where now was the glorious promise of the 
harvest. Here Jacob, with his beloved Rachel and less favored 
Leah, had their home, bought from the sons of Hamor for an 
hundred pieces of money, and afterwards wrested from them by 
the edge of the sword Here were brought the bones of Jo- 
seph, to be buried upon the estate given him by his father, Jacob, 
Again the scene changes, and the millions of enliberated Israel- 
ites meet in the valley between Ebal and Gerizim, that tower 
up at his back, while the blessing and curse are set before them 
in clear tones, that all can hear, while the ' Amen ' of the con- 
gregation responsively echoes back and forth between the moun- 
tain peaks. Doubtless also there passed through his mind the 
great assemblage of the people after the death of Solomon, 
when the foolish Rehobom had the opportunity of his lifetime 
to unify and draw the entire nation to his service. The people 
assembled here to meet him, and under the guidance of Jero- 
boam met him with the proposition, ' Thy father made our yoke 
grievous ; now therefore make thou the grievous service of the 
father and the heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and 
v/e will serve thee.' After three days of consultation, they 
assembled to receive the reply. It came in these stinging 
words : ' My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to 
your yoke ; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chas- 
tise you with scorpions.' Immediately there leaped from 
twice ten thousand lips the defiant cry which rent the nation 
forever asunder, ' What portion have we in David ? neither in- 
heritance in the son of Jesse ; to your tents, O ! Israel ; now see 
to thine own house, David ! ' As his mind is filled with such 
musings, the woman comes to draw water from the well, when 
that conversation takes place which has unfolded some of the 
sublimest truths of religion for all ages of men. From Jacob's 
Well it is but a short distance over' to the Tomb of Joseph. 
All classes accept it as the actual place of interment of the patri- 
arch ; and future excavations may untomb the mummied body of 
Pharaoh's prime minister. Riding back from the tomb and 



322 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

passing- up by the little villag-e of Balat, we found ourselves 
subject to all manner of insults from the children of the village. 
One little fellow threw a stone, striking one of the party, but 
not hurting him severely. The vale that leads from the plain 
up to the city is one of the prettiest I ever saw. The lofty 
mountains on either side are covered with olive trees, which 
seemed to be alive with birds. The valley itself is filled with 
luxuriant vegetation, caused by a copious stream formed by 
three large springs, that unite their waters. Just before enter- 
ing the city we passed the Turkish barracks, garrisoned by a 
strong force of Turkish soldiers, kept there to intimidate one of 
the most fanatical and malignant Moslem cities in the Turkish 
Empire. 

We reached our camping-place, in a large olive grove just 
outside the city limits and at the foot of Mt. Ebal, about four 
o'clock, and as it was more than two hours till dinner, a. few of 
us proceeded to ascend Mt. Gerizim, the ancient and present 
holy shrine of Samaritan worship. The mountain towers loftily 
to the height of nearly 3,000 feet above sea level, and though 
it is a most difficult place to ascend, the view from the summit 
well repays the labor incurred. While the view to the north 
is largely shut out by the towering Ebal, we can obtain glimpses 
down into the great plain of Esdraelon, while towards the 
east we can look over the small range that borders the opposite 
side of Mukhnah, down into the great valley of the Jordan, 
flanked upon its eastern side by the hills of Jabesh Gilead. On 
the west we can see Joppa, nearly forty miles distant, and with 
to a glass plainly discerned a steamer on its voyage from Joppa 
to Beirut. At our feet lie Joseph's Tomb and Jacob's Well, while 
the poles of the telegraph line to Joppa can be counted for a 
mile or more. The summit of this mountain is the Holy Place 
of the Samaritans. It is, like the summit of Mt. Moriah, 
honey-combed with cisterns and subterranean vaults, which go 
back, doubtless, to the earliest days of Samaritan worship. Above 
these are the ruins of a castle and church, built in the days of 
Justinian, although they were doubtless erected upon the foun- 
dations of the great Samaritan temple built in the days of Me- 
nasseh to rival the one at Jerusalem. Near the castle are twelve 



FROM JERUSALEM TO SHECHEM. 



323 



stones, which they identify with the twelve stones brought up 
from the Jordan, and set up as a memorial at Gilgal. Near 
these lies a large piece of rock, said to have been the altar-piece 



r 




SACRED ROCK OF SAMARIA. 



of the great temple. They arrogate to this place many events 
which the Jews locate elsewhere. In two notable ones, viz : 
the meeting between Abraham and Melchizedek, and the 
sacrifice of Isaac, the learned Dean Stanley espouses their cause, 
and shows, by conclusive arguments, that these events must 
have occurred upon Gerizim. Here, for thousands of years, 
they have celebrated their most sacred festival — The Feast of 
the Passover. An eye-witness (Mills) thus describes the event : 
" A carpet was laid on the ground near the boiling cauldrons, 
where Yacub stood to read the service, assisted by some of the 
elders — all turning their faces toward the site of the temple ; 
six lambs now made their appearance, in the custody of five 
young men, who drove them ; these young men were dressed in 
blue robes of unbleached calico, having their loins girded ; 
Yacub, whilst repeating the service, stood on a large stone in 
front of the people, with his face toward them ; at mid-day, the 
service had reached the place where the account of the paschal 
sacrifice is introduced : * And the whole assembly of the con- 
gregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening ' (Ex. xii. 6), 
when, in an instant, one of the lambs was thrown on its back 
by the blue-clad young men, and the sJiochet, one of their num- 
ber, with his flashing knife, did the murderous work with rapid- 
ity. I stood close by, on purpose to see if he would conform 



124 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



to the rabbinical rules ; but the work was done so quickly that 
I could observe nothing more than that he made two cuts. 
The other lambs were dispatched in the same manner. Whilst 
the six were thus lying together, with their blood streaming 
from them, the young shochetim dipped their fingers in the 
blood, and marked a spot on the foreheads and noses of the chil- 
dren. The same was done to some of the females, but to none 
of the male adults. The whole congregation now came up 




SAMARITANS AT WORSHIP ON MOUNT GERIZIM. 



close to the reader ; they embraced and kissed one another, in 
congratulation that the lambs of their redemption had been slain. 
Next came the fleecing of the lambs — the service still continu- 
ing. The young men now carefully poured the boiling water over 
them, and plucked off their fleeces. Each lamb was then lifted 
up, with its head downwards, to drain off the remaining blood. 
The right fore-legs, which belonged to the priest, were removed 



FROM JERUSALEM TO SHECHEM. 325 

and placed on the wood already laid for the purpose, together 
with the entrails, and salt added, and then burnt ; but the liver 
was carefully replaced. The inside being sprinkled with salt, 
and the hamstrings carefully removed, the next process was 
that of spitting. For this purpose they had a long pole, which 
was thrust through from head to tail, near the bottom of which 
was a transverse peg, to prevent the body from slipping off. 
The lambs were now carried to the oven, which was by this 
time well heated. Into this they were carefully lowered, so 
that the sacrifices might not be defiled by coming into contact 
with the oven itself This accomplished, a hurdle, prepared 
for the purpose, was placed over the mouth of the oven, well 
covered with moistened earth, to prevent any of the heat from 
escaping. By this time it was about two o'clock, and this part 
of the service ended. At sunset the service was re-commenced. 
All the male population, with the lads, assembled around the 
oven. A large copper dish, filled Avith unleavened cakes and 
bitter herbs rolled up together, was held by Phineas Ben Isaac 
nephew to the priest, when, presently, all being assembled, he 
distributed them among the congregation. The hurdle was 
then removed, and the lambs drawn up one by one, but, unfor- 
tunately, one fell off the spit, and was taken up with difficulty^ 
Their appearance was anything but inviting, they being burnt 
as black as ebony. Carpets were spread ready to receive them ; 
they were then removed to the platform, where the service was 
read. Being strewn over with bitter herbs, the congregation 
stood in two files, the lambs being in a line between them. 
Most of the adults had now a kind of rope around their waists, 
and staves in their hands, and all had their shoes on. ' Thus 
shall ye eat it, with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, 
and your staff in your hand ' (Ex. xii. 1 1). The .service was 
now performed by Amram, which continued for fifteen minutes ; 
and when he had repeated the blessing, the congregation at 
once stooped, and, as if in haste and hunger, tore away the 
blackened masses piece-meal with their fingers, carrying por- 
tions to the females and little ones in the tents. In less than 
ten minutes the whole, with the exception of a few fragments, 
had disappeared. These were gathered and placed on the hur- 



326 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

die, and the area carefully examined, every crumb picked up, 
together with the bones, and all burnt over a hre kindled for the 
Durpose, in a trough, where the water had been boiled. ' And 
ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning ; and that 
which remaineth of it till the morning, ye shall burn with fire, 
(Ex. xii. lo). Whilst the flames were blazing and consuming 
the remnants of the paschal lambs, the people returned cheer- 
fully to their tents." 

This interesting ceremony is still kept up by the oldest and 
smallest sect in the world. For nearly three thousand years 
they have performed these rites, separated by prejudice and 
worship from all the rest of the world. Empires may rise and 
fall ; kingdoms succeed each other on the map of the world as 
waves on the sea, but these people are unmoved by any such 
changes. A few years ago their numbers dwindled down to 
130, and it seemed as if their extinction was only a few years 
off. But they have recently been increasing in membership, 
and now number 160. They have a small synagogue in the town, 
where they perform their service in a very monotonous and un 
interesting manner. In this synagogue is the celebrated Sa- 
maritan Pentateuch, which has given rise to much discussion. 
It has been claimed by some that it was written in the time of 
Moses, while others say that it was the work of one of Aaron's 
grandsons, while the scholarship of the world is pretty gen- 
erally agreed that it antedates the Christian Era. It is rarely 
shown to ordinary travelers, for fear of wearing it out. Our 
conductor had to send him back twice before he produced the 
original document. 

The people of Nablous are very turbulent, and travelers are 
often subjected to indignities by them. Our conductor thought 
best to have a detachment of the soldiery to guard our tents ; 
and it was well enough he took that precaution, for about mid- 
night the report of a gun just in the rear of our tent brought 
us up quite suddenly. A native was endeavoring to steal into 
the tent, and being challenged by the guard, and refusing to 
reply, was fired upon. In less than fifteen minutes we could 
hear a wild cry all over the town, and in half an hour our tents 
were surrounded by what seemed thousands of jackals. It was 




FROM JERUSALEM TO SHECHEM. 327 

the enraged population calling and answering each other, as 
jackals. Now, the cry of the jackal, when uttered by the ani- 
mal itself, is very lonesome, resembling greatly that of the 
coyote of our Western prairies ; but it is veritable music when 
compared with the same cry issuing from the throats of enraged 
fanatics, eager for an excuse to tear you to pieces. For a while 
we were greatly alarmed lest they make an attack on us, know- 
ing full well if they did our guards would be powerless to pro- 
tect us; but, as time wore on and they did, not, we gradually 
became more composed, and sank into a slumber from which we 
were only awakened by the noise of the tim-tom bell the next 
morning. 



NABLUS TO NAZARETH. 

After an early breakfast, we were in the saddle and ready 
for the next point of interest — the city of Samaria. Just west 
of Shechem the country is delightfully fine. A beautiful little 
brook threaded its way through the vale, turning the wheels of 
a great number of miniature water-mills that seem to be placed 
at almost regular intervals. There are quite a number of little 
villages, also looking quite prosperous from a distance, but 
having the same dirty, squalid looking inside which character- 
izes all Muslim villages. The modern name of Samaria is 
Sebastiyeh, which is a corruption of Sebaste, the name applied 
to it by Herod. It is situated upon the hill of Samaria, a 
solitary mound, rising 400 or 500 feet above the valley, sur- 
rounding it, and is nothing but a group of dirty houses. The 
fences are all made of cactus plants, which grow to great size, 
and are very effective as fences. As at Shiloh, so at Samaria, 
the utter desolation of this once proud city brings to mind the 
prophecy of God against it: "Samaria shall become desolate; 
for she hath rebelled against her God." "I will make Sa- 
maria as a heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard, 
and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I 
will discover the foundations thereof" 

Samaria obtained its name from Shemer, VN^ho formerly- 
owned the hill on which it stood, and was built by Omri, king 
of Israel, and remained the capital of the ten tribes till the 
captivity. It was the center of idolatry. Here Ahab reared 
up the great temple of Baal which was destroyed by Jehu. 
" He reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which 
he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a grove ; and Ahab 
did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings 
of Israel that were before him." He built here an ivory 

palace, and during his reign the city suffered that terrible siege 

328 



NABLUS TO NAZARETH. 329 

by the Syrians that is famih'ar to all Bible students. The ex- 
tremity was so great that starving women entered into compact 
as to what days they should eat their sons. The almost mirac- 
ulous defeat of Syrians by a handful of Israelites, the 
empty camp, and the plenty of bread are also known. It suf- 
fered many sieges, and at last was restored to Syria by 
Pompey. Augustus gave it to Herod, who named it Sebaste, 
which is the Greek for Augustus. That which makes Samaria 
precious to the Christian is the fact that after the early Chris- 
tians were driven away from Jerusalem and were scattered 
abroad, and went everywhere preaching, Philip went down to 
Samaria and preached Christ to them. Here, after the Sa- 
maritans hearing, believed, and were baptized, Simon the 
sorcerer also believed and was baptized. As a result of that 
meeting, " there was great joy in that city." 

It was from this work that Philip was taken that he might 
go and preach Jesus to the Ethiopian eunuch. The inhabitants 
of Samaria are a good-humored people and seem very fond of 
having people visit them They have all manner of old coins 
of which they are very anxious to dispose, at an enormous 
bargain. They also seem posted in the ancient history of their 
city, and are quite willing to point cut to you just where every 
important event occurred. They can show you the gate where 
the lepers sat, the palace of Ahab, the temple of Herod, the 
amphitheater of Herod, or any other place you would like to 
see, for all of which they expect a consideration. 

The principal ruin of the place is the old church of St. 
John. It was a Christian Church in the days of the crusaders, 
but has been converted into a mosque. There are some crosses 
upon the walls made by the old Knights of St. John, but they 
have been badly defaced by the Muslims. In a crypt below is 
the traditional tomb of St. John the Baptist, Obadiah, the 
servant of Ahab, and several others. Josephus tells us that 
John was beheaded at Machaerus, on the Dead Sea, and there- 
fore we have no faith in this tradition. The street of columns 
running around the hillside presented to us the greatest attrac- 
tion, and as Mr. Thompson has given us a fine description, I 
will take the liberty to quote it : "The remains of the ancient 



330 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE, 



city consist mainly of colonnades, which certainly date back 
to the time of the Herods, and perhaps many of the columns 
are much older. The Grand Colonnade runs along the south 
side of the hill down a broad terrace, which descends rapidly 
towards the present village. The number of columns, whole 
or broken along this line, is nearly one hundred, and many 
others lie scattered about on lower terraces. They are of various 
sizes and quite irregularly arranged, but when perfect it must 
have been a splendid colonnade. The entire hill is covered with 
rubbish, indicating the existence and repeated destructions of 
a large city." 




?^^^|r^' 



HEROD S COLONNADE AT SAMARIA. 



We lingered about* Samaria several hours, our minds filled 
with musings upon its past glory and present desolation, and 
then took our departure northward. The next place of im- 
portance at which we stopped was Dothan, the ruins of which 
form a " tell " (hill ) in the plain of Dothan. It was at Dothan 
that young Joseph, the ' ' dreamer, " came upon his brethren, and 
was sold by them into the hands of the Midianites. It was also 
to Dothan that Benhadad, king of Syria, who was invading the 
land in the days of Elisha, and greatly fearing that prophet, % 
sent an army to compass him. This caused Elisha's servant to 



NABLUS TO NAZARETH. 33I 

fear lest they be ciptured, but his master said unto him, " Fear 
not, -for they that be with us are more than they that be with 
them. And EHsha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open 
his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of 
the young man, and he saw ; and, behold, the mountain was 
full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." The 
result of it all was that the Syrians were led to Samaria in their 
blindness. Leaving Dothan, it was but a two hours' ride to 
Jenin, where we found our tents pitched for the night, upon 
the edge of the great plain of Esdraelon. The villagers are 
characterized by their propensity for horse-stealing, and our 
animals had to be carefully guarded at night. It answers to 
the En Gannim mentioned in the book of Joshua as on the 
border of Issachar, a Levite city. 

The next morning we started for a glorious day's ride across 
the Plain of Esdraelon, which lay before us. It is called in 
Scripture the Plain of Jezreel, the Valley of Megiddo, and by 
the Apostle John, the Valley of Armageddon. It is here the 
Battle of Armageddon is to be fought. This is not altogether 
inapposite, for it has been the world's great battle-ground. 
More conflicts have been tried here than upon any other place 
in the world. Warriors of all countries have marshaled their 
forces, unfurled their banners, and rushed to victory or defeat 
upon this plain. As far back as Barak it was a battle-field. He 
descended from Mt. Tabor with ten thousand men, and, by 
the aid of the river Kishon, overthrew Sisera. Here was the 
great border line between Saul and the Philistines, over which 
they swept in turn, and from whence Saul was driven back up 
into the mountains of Gilboa to a suicide's death. Here it was 
that Gideon and his band broke their pitchers, flashed out their 
gleaming lights, and struck terror into the souls of the enemy 
by their war cry, " The sword of the Lord and of Gideon. " Here 
Josiah received his death wound in the battle with Necho, the 
Egyptian king. 

It was this plain into which the enemies of Israel would make 
their incursions and destroy the fruits of labor. "And so it 
was when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and 
the Amalekites and the children of the East, . . . and 



332 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

destroyed the increase of the earth, . . . for they came 
up with their cattle and their tents, . . . . as grasshoppers 
for multitude. " Here it was that the blood of Naboth, who 
was killed by Ahab, cried out for a vengeance that resulted in 
the destruction of that wicked king, his wife, and house. Na- 
poleon, looking down from Mt. Tabor upon this plain, where 
his faithful Kleber, with an handful of French soldiers, bravely 
held their own against the great hordes of Arabs, that charged 
and recharged until they had, with their dead, piled up a for- 
tress between themselves and their enemy, was so inspired 
with the grandeur of the surroundings that for the first time in 
his life he took the offensive in warfare, and rushed down 
Tabor's rugged sides to the salvation of his little band, that 
could only be located in the multitudes around them by the 
bright flashes of their guns. It was almost enough to make us 
forget the grim horrors of war to stand upon a spot so conse- 
crated to warfare. It looks to be very fertile, and could now 
be made almost a paradise, were it not for the Bedouins, who 
still lay waste the fruit of the earth, which may be cultivated 
by the villagers. 

But our musings are broken into by the voice of our con- 
ductor, and looking up, we perceive a beautiful fountain burst- 
ing out from the base of the. foot-hill, and we realize that we 
have reached the Fountain of Jezreel. Immediately after is- 
suing from the rock, it forms into a little pool, and then runs 
down a few hundred yards and falls over a mill dam that is 
constructed to turn a small grist mill. Riding our horses into 
the fountain, we found it about three feet deep and full of little 
fish, which were " nesting " upon the gravelly bottom. Some 
of us took the trouble to get down and lap like dogs, as Gid- 
eon's band of three hundred did in their day, but the majority 
were content with a cool draught from the earthen jugs filled by 
the Arabs for them. From the fountain we returned to the 
site of the ancient city, where, on one side, could be seen Shu- 
nem, where the Philistines were encamped, and on the other, 
Gilboa, where Saul's army lay. That battle was a sad day for 
Israel! Saul, by his wickedness, had grieved away the pre- 
sence of the Lord. In vain did he appeal to prophet, oracle 



NABLUS TO NAZARETH. 333 

or urim and thummim. They had no voice for the rebeUious 
king. In his loneliness he sought an answer from the evil 
spirits with whom his people had been forbidden to communi- 
cate by his own decree. Any voice was better than this hor- 
rible silence. In the darkness of night he crosses the ridge of 
little Hermon and seeks the cavern of Endor's witch. God 
permits the prophet's spirit to rise out of the shadow-land and 
reveal his fate: "To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with 
me." Slowly and sadly does the condemned one retrace his 
steps to the camp of Israel, ready for the battle at break of a 
day whose setting sun shall gleam upon the cold forms of him- 
self and his children ! Despite the wickedness of his past life 
we can not help admiring the heroic daring of the brave war- 
rior. Knowing full well the issue of the day and his own end, 
he resolutely gathers his army for the slaughter. Down these 
slopes came the tramping legions of Israel, Saul leading on, 
their feet crushing such little mallows and daisies as these we 
now behold, and solemnly uttering the war-cry of the He- 
brews, while just upon the opposite ridge we descry the ad- 
vancing hosts of Philistia. The two lines meet upon this little 
spot, and the clash of battle is on. Towering like an Ajax, 
Saul heads his faithful followers, encouraging by word and ac- 
tion, and fighting his God-pronounced fate to the last moment. 
It is not long until a line is broken. Philistia rushes impetu- 
ously into the chasm, and Israel wavers, and at last slowly 
surges up the mountain side, contesting the last inch of ground 
with heroic persistence. "And the battle went sore against 
Saul, and the archers hit him." At last in pain and madness 
he pleaded with his armor-bearer to end his misery, and save 
him from death at the hands of the enemy. Failing in this, 
he placed his own trusty sword before him, and fearlessly 
threw himself upon it, choosing thus to die by his own hand 
rather than gratify his old enemy. The corpses of the king 
and his sons were found upon the mountain top, taken down 
yonder to Bethshean, whose ruins we can just see this side of 
the Jordan, and nailed to the wall, from whence they were res- 
cued by the brave men of Jabesh Gilead. 

Misguided and wicked king, but warrior brave ! Let us 



334 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

forget thy wickedness for the moment, and drop a tear of sor- 
row over thy wasted Hfe ! Alas, that so much heroism of this 
generation should likewise be led captive at the will of-an evil 
spirit and sacrificed upon the altar of a false ambition ! Our 
course now lay across the plain to the village of Shulem, 
the Shunem of the Bible, which is one of the prettiest of all 
Palestine's villages. As we drew near the village we met a 
small boy wandering through a wheat field, which brought to 
mind the story of the woman of Shunem and her "prophet's 
chamber" prepared for Elisha. By her hospitality she gained 
the favor of the prophet, and her heart was gladdened by the 
voice of promise which she could hardly believe, till her home 
was also gladdened by the voice of childhood, the sweetest 
music of an earthly home. " And when the child was grown, 
it fell on a day that he went out to his father to the reapers. 
And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said 
unto a lad, Carry him to his mother. And he sat on her knee 
till noon, and then died." She laid him upon the bed of the 
man of God, and, urged by a mother's love, quickly rode over 
this plain to our left till she reached Carmel, where stayed the 
prophet. He came with her and stretched himself upon the 
child, " and the flesh of the child waxed warm." 

From Shunem we made a short excursion to Nain, and 
thence the party went on to Nazareth, but about six of us con- 
cluded to add a couple more hours to our already long day's 
ride, and visit the cave of Endor. The time from Nain to 
Endor is one hour, but we made it in forty minutes. The 
town lies upon the north side of a large hill. It is called in 
Arabic, Endur, and there is no doubt as to its identity. It is a 
rude Moslem village of about lOO inhabitants, mostly engaged 
in herding sheep in the daytime, and looking very much as 
though they could carry on a very respectable witch business 
at night, if so disposed. The place, like many other Palestine 
villages, is surrounded by a cactus hedge, and our pathway 
led us winding about through narrow lanes that pass for streets 

While passing in front of some of the houses on the hill- 
side, we were enabled to look down the chimneys of the ones 
below us. Our visit was evidently an event, for it brought out 



NABLUS TO NAZARETH. 335 

every man, woman, child, dog and kid in the whole place, and we 
soon found ourselves followed by a motley crowd. Above the 
village are rude, irregular excavations in the ground, and our 
horses had to step very carefully to keep from falling into the 
cisterns that have been dug out of the rock. In fact, if Endor 
has any strong point, itis caves, both natural and artificial. 

Quite near the hill-top we came upon a large cavern, the 
mouth of which was covered by a large fig tree. With reverent 
feelings we approach it, A strange, Aveird feeling seemed to 
be creeping over us, which we found impossible to shake off. 
We seemed to be in a land of shadows. Peering into a dark 
corner far within, we felt that must be the spot where the 
shade of Samuel had risen from the depths of hades. If that 
be the spot, we could easily see where the prostrate form of 
the God-abandoned king lay prone upon the earth near the 
cavern's mouth. Then, too, the witch must have occupied the 
corner to the left upon the rocky ledge. We could almost 
see her cauldron filled with boiling, noxious herbs and noisome 
plants, from which the fumes were filling the cavern. That 
niche in the wall was doubtless where the wild fox had his lair, 
and the loathsome frog and pet snake also nestled. I believe 
such animals are always the adornment of a first-class witchery, 
and this was evidently of that kind, or it would not have been 
patronized by royalty. Thus we were reasoning most con- 
clusively to ourselves as we stood in the mouth of the cavern, 
when one of the citizens approached us and began talking. 
We, however, did not care to talk to him, for were we not 
communing with the ancient prophet and king of Israel ? He, 
however, persisted, and by gestures and words at last made us 
understand that we should follow him. He took us about fifty 
feet down the hillside, and showed us another cavern, and at 
last got us to understand we had been effervescing at the 
wrong place. We had spent our force, however, and could 
not charge ourselves for another outburst. The strange, 
weird feeling had passed away, never to return, so we stalked 
into the true cavern without the least apprehension. 

It is a large, forked cave, one arm of which is about thirty 
and the other about forty feet long. An intermittent boiling 



33^ AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

spring would keep throwing up water every few moments in a 
very peculiar, gurgitating manner. The stream that issued 
from the cavern, though quite small, is never-faihng. Taken 
all in all, it certainly was a very appropriate place for such an 
event as the Bible records, and from its location I have not the 
least doubt that it is the identical spot. 

It is also supposed that this is the scene of the death of 
Jabin and Sisera, " Do unto them as unto the Midianites, as 
to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook Kishon, which perished at 
Endor. " While the villagers were, in common parlance, a 
"hard looking set," we will do them the justice to say they 
treated us with the utmost of politeness, not once asking for 
backsheesh. In going on to Nazareth, we did not retrace our 
steps, but rode along the base of Mt. Tabor till we reached the 
modern village of Iskal, which lies just across the plain from 
Nain. Near Iskal is a large burial ground, the tombs of which 
were all cut into the solid rock. We paused to rest, and, look- 
ing backward, we happened to observe the little chapel where 
Christ raised the widow's son. Curiously enough it stands ex.- 
actLy at the intersection of two paths — the one, the way Christ 
must have entered the city, the other, the road that would 
have led to this cemetery from Nain. After climbing a very 
steep mountain, Nazareth, perched upon a beautiful hillside, 
bursts upon our view, and in another hour we are in camp en- 
joying a good cup of tea and informing those who did not go, 
how much they had missed in not seing Endor. 

While sitting in front of our tents waiting for dinner, a 
shepherd leading his flock to the fold for the night, passed by. 
Curious to see such a fold, we followed him up the hill to a 
fold in the rocky hillside, having but one door. "Climbing 
up another way," we loeked down upon the little flock, when 
it flashed upon our minds that we had before us a perfect pic- 
ture of the tenth chapter of John. PuUing out our Bibles, we 
read by the fading hght, and found in our surroundings a per- 
fect illustration of it all, even to us who had " climbed up some 
other way." The fold was in the rock, and may have been 
used as such for thousands of years. The thought crossed our 
minds that the boy Jesus, in wandering through his native vil- 



NABLUS TO NAZARETH. 



337 



lage, had often seen the same spot, which may have been the 
very one that suggested to his mind the matchless image re- 





SHEPHERD. 



corded by John. But the day has been long and toilful, Sat- 
urday night is at hand, and we need a hearty sleep to refresh 
us for to-morrow, so these musing-s must cease. 



NAZARETH TO THE SEA OF GALILEE. 

Sunday morning dawned bright and beautiful upon Naza- 
reth, and the sweet music of Christian bells broke upon our 
ears for the first time since leaving Italy. The sound was in- 
describably sweet, after listening so long to the sad minor 
muezzin prayer call from the minarets. It made us feel that we 
were under the influence of the Christian religion, and at the 
place of his boyhood, the Prophet now has honor in his 
own country. The meaning of Nazareth has never been defi- 
nitely settled, but is generally supposed to come from ' ' Nazar, " 
a twig. It contains about six thousand people, more than 
four-fifths of whom are Christians. They are celebrated for 
their courtesy and kindness to strangers, and most parties 
stop here over Lord's day for that reason. 

The women are the prettiest in Palestine, though it is a 
long way behind an average western town in cleanliness. It 
was the scene of the annunciation. From Nazareth, Joseph 
and Mary went up to Bethlehem to be taxed. After their re- 
turn from Egypt, they came here and dwelt. He entered upon 
his public ministry here, and when they sought to kill him he 
departed from here and dwelt in Capernaum. From this time 
he made Capernaum his own city, and we have no record of 
his ever again visiting his boyhood home. At half-past nine 
o'clock we held a union service in the dining tent, which was 
conducted by Bro. Toof, and attended by about fifty persons, 
some of whom were Christians living in Nazareth. 

At eleven o'clock the regular service of the Episcopal 
Church was held in their building, but we preferred to feast 
our eyes upon the scenes about the city, and did not attend. 
In the afternoon we were conducted to a number of the tradi- 
tional sacred places. 

The Latin convent contains the Chapel of the Annuncia- 



NAZARETH TO THE SEA OF GALILEE. 



339 



tion, where Gabriel saluted Mary. A marble altar covers a 
spot inscribed '' Hie verbiini factum est'' ("Here the word 
was made flesh"). A doorway leads into the Chapel of Joseph, 
and thence a stairway conducts into the kitchen of the Virgin, 
which is nothing more than a hole in the rock. We are also 
told by the monks that the real house has been carried by 
angels to Loretto, in Italy. How they expect us to believe 
both, I can not understand. It is sickening indeed to see how 
the Catholics have seized upon everything precious in the life of 
the Saviour, and located it in a '^grotto" or elsewhere, and 
have built a chapel over it. They have a small chapel in Naz- 
areth built over a big rock, where Christ ate with his disciples 
after his rcswTection. These things the greasy, lazy old monks 
will show to cultivated ladies and gentlemen with as much ef- 
frontery as you can conceive, and I really think it doesn't enter 
their minds that they are insulting the intelligence of Christen- 
dom. There are two or three places about the city that pos- 
sess real interest. One of these is the fountain of the Virgin. 




WELL AT NAZARETH. 



It is a fine spring of water that is to-day, as it doubtless al- 
ways, has been the water supply of that place. When we see the 
Nazareth women gather about this place " wait their turn," with 
jugs upon their heads, and often leading a little boy by the 
hand, it is not hard to believe that Mary made her daily pil- 
grimage to this place, with her darling boy accompanying her. 
Here, as at Jerusalem, there seenis to be a strong prejudice 



340 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



against permitting men to carry water ; and so strong is the 
feeling, that the men do not attempt it. Whether they are 
oppressed by the burden of a pubhc sentiment, or of the water, 
I can not say. 

There have also been several places fixed upon as the 
mountain down which his countrymen desired to cast Jesus ; 
but not liking any of these places, we took our Bible, and, 
after reading what it said, fixed upon a spot that certainly 
filled the conditions much better than the traditional sites. In- 
deed, there are plenty of such places, and no one can be cer- 
tain about it. The Greeks have a church built, according to 
tradition, upon the site of the synagogue into which he entered 
and taught. While there is nothing more than tradition, that 
being a venerable one, and meeting all the facts in the case, 
we looked upon the spot with interest. But by far the most 
pleasant part of the day was in climbing up the heights around 




CARPENTER SHOP IN NAZARETH. 



the city, and looking down upon the places where he certainly 
must have been, letting loose our fancy as to what impressions 
were made upon the lad by the views and sights we were con- 
templating. A pleasant episode of the day was our visit to 
the Greek Bishop. As we passed his home, a boy came run- 
ning out and told our guide something, who informed us the 
Bishop would be pleased to see us. We went in, and were re- 



NAZARETH TO THE SEA OF GALILEE. 34 1 

ceived in a very hearty manner, and upon our departing were 
each presented with a fresh rose from his garden. There is a 
Girls' Orphanage at Nazareth that is doing much good in edu- 
cating young women in the East. We found a number of 
women in different villages who could speak English well, and 
were invariably tidy and clean. They had been educated in 
this school. At the time of our visit there were about ninety 
girls in the institution, that are being educated at an annual 
expense of about forty dollars to each girl. It is a perfect 
model of cleanliness, and will be a great benefit to the dirty 
Moslem population, in that direction, if in no other. There is 
a school for boys also in the place, numbering one hundred and 
fifty pupils. 

The workshop of Joseph is also shown, though only a 
small portion of the wall is claimed to be original. As we 
could not prove to the contrary, we let the statement pass for 
what it was worth. Just as we stepped out of this workshop, 
I heard a harsh, grinding noise, and looking into the building 
on my left, saw two women grinding at the mill, as they did 




MILLSTONES. 



when our Saviour was living there, and as they doubtless will 
be when he comes to earth again. As we got our supply of 
bread here to last us till we arrived at Damascus, our readers 
may be interested in knowing how it was prepared. Bro. Mc- 
Garvey has well told it, as follows: "The manure from cows 
donkeys and horses is all carefully gathered up by the village 
women, pulled out into round cakes about six inches in diame- 



34^: 



AN HISTORICAL PlLGRIMAGfi. 



ter and one inch thick, and then laid out on top of the house, 
or stuck against the wall of the house to dry. These cakes, 
when dried, are used as chips for boiling the kettle, frying the 
meat or heating the bake oven. The ovens are little conic 
__=-^ _ structures, made of mud 

and smoothly plastered, 
both inside and out. An 
opening in one side en- 
ables the woman to put in 
the fuel and build the fire, 
and also to rake out the 
fire when the oven is hot, 
and to put in the bread. 
The odor of these ovens is 
what might be expected." 
I will go further, and say 
that the odor of the bread 
also is what might be ex- 
pected ; but bad as it is, it 
is infinitely to be preferred 
to no bread. 

On the hill-tops above Nazareth is one of those magnificent 
views for which Palestine is so famous. Far away to the south 
lies Jezreel, with its plain stretching east till hemmed in by Gil- 
ead's hills, while the peak of Mt. Ebal rises up in the farther 
south ; northward the peak of Hermon is visible ; while looking 
westward, Carmel, the town of Haifa, set upon the shores of 
Acre's Bay, are clearly seen. Standing upon that height, it 
came to my mind that during all those mysterious thirty years 
in which the Boy Christ was ripening in the favor of God and 
man, and developing for the wonderful work before him, 
he must have often climbed that noble hill, and feasted his 
eyes with the sights, and opened his soul to all the sweet in- 
fluences to which mine was yielding. Yea, he might even 
have wept while he thought on the historic associations, as I 
found myself doing. 

Monday morning early we were in the saddle, eager to ob- 
tain our first view of the Sea of Galilee, upon whose shores 




VILLAGE BAKE-OVEN. 



NAZARETH TO THE SEA OF GALILEE. 343 

we expected to camp that night. There are two routes from 
Nazareth to the Sea of Galilee — one via Mt. Tabor, and one by 
Cana. As we had a fine view of Tabor when at Nain, and 
passed just along the base of it in going to Nazareth from the 
Cave of Endor, we chose the latter, though it is a less pictur- 
esque route than the former. The first place of importance 
passed on our way was Meshad, identified as the Gathhepper of 
the Bible. It is the birthplace of Jonah, the Prophet, and 
there is a wely, or tomb, on the top of the hill, which is still 
shown as his. About half an hour further on we came to the 
little village of Kefr Kenna, the ancient Cana, the place where 
the Saviour performed the " beginning of miracles which he 
did." Here he also healed the nobleman's son who lay sick 
down at Capernaum. It was the birthplace of Nathaniel, the 
Israelite in whom was no guile. It is a small village of 400 
or 500 inhabitants, and probably differs but slightly from, the 
same place when our Saviour visited it. There is a new Greek 
church building over the site of the first miracle. In this 
Church they still show you two of the zvatering pots thai held the 
wine Jesus made from the water. After passing the village, we 
entered a beautiful plain, over which we journeyed for several 
hours, with no other incident than the meeting of a large com- 
pany of pilgrims from Russia, going down to the Easter services 
of the Greek Church at Jerusalem. They numbered more than 
a thousand, and were strung out over more than two miles of 
space. All ages, sizes, colors and conditions were embraced 
in it, from the sleek, fat priest, who always rode upon his pony 
or donkey, to the aged, wrinkled grandmother, who often 
trudged along on foot, hobbling as though it was with the 
greatest of difficulty she could keep up. Many such die along 
the route every year. In about two hours from Cana, we 
reached a curiously shaped mountain rising out of the plain, 
called Kurun Hattin, or Horns of Hattin. It is the traditional 
mountain where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, and 
certainly no more appropriate place could be selected. Its 
sides were covered with the greatest variety and profusion of 
flowers, and it compares as favorably with the bald, rugged 
steeps of Sinai as the sweet, gentle inaugural discourse of the 



344 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

Saviour differs from the harsh gratings of the Mosaic inaugural. 
Another tradition makes this also the place ,of the feeding of 
the five thousand, but this is manifestly incorrect, if the sacred 
description of that event is to be taken into account. I am 
sorry to say, however, that in locating these events the monks 
have not always been careful to make them conform to the 
Bible narrative. This is the last and decisive battle-ground of 
the Crusades. In July, 1187, Saladin defeated the Crusaders, 
and decided the fate of Palestine. Moslemism triumphed, and 
the power of the Cross was forever broken. It occurred on 
July 4, and Addison has given us a most graphic pen picture 
of it: "At sunrise, the Templars and Hospitalers formed in 
battle-array in the van of the Christian army, having passed 
clear through the host for that purpose, and prepared to open a 
road through the dense ranks of infidels to the Lake of Tiberias. 
An Arabian writer who witnessed the movements of. their 
dense and compact columns at early dawn, speaks of them as 
'terrible in arms, having their whole body cased with triple 
mail.' He compares the noise made by their advancing squad- 
rons to the loud humming of bees, and describes them as ani- 
mated with ' a flaming desire of vengeance. ' Saladin had on 
his left flank the Lake of Tiberias, his infantry was in the cen^- 
ter, and the swift cavalry of the desert was stationed on either 
wing, under the command of Faki-ed-deen. The Templars 
rushed, like lions, we are told, upon the Moslem infidels, and 
nothing could withstand their heavy and impetuous charge. 
The ground was broken and narrow ; the Knights could not 
place their lances in rest, nor bring their chargers to the career, 
while the enemy rained down upon them from the heights 
clouds of darts and other missiles. Never, says an Arabian 
doctor of the law, have I seen bolder or more powerful soldiers — 
none more to be feared by the behevers in the true faith. Sal- 
adin set fire to the dry grass and dwarf shrubs which lay be- 
tween both armies, and the wind blew the smoke and the 
flames directly into the faces of the Knights and their horses. 
The fire, the noise, the gleaming weapons, and all the accom- 
paniments of the horrid scene have given full scope to the de- 
scriptive powers of the Oriental writers. They compare it to 



NAZARETH TO THE SEA OF GALILEE. 345 

the last judgment ; the dust and smoke obscured the face of the 
sun, and the day was turned into night. Sometimes gleams of 
light darted like the lightning amid the throng of combatants. 
Then you might see the dense columns of armed warriors, now 
as immovable as mountains, and now sweeping swiftly across 
the landscape like the rainy clouds over the face of heaven. 
The sons of Paradise and the children of fire there decided 
their terrible quarrel; the arrows rustled through the air like 
the wings of innumerable sparrows ; the sparks flew from the 
coats of mail and glancing sabers, and the blood spurting forth 
from the bosom of the throng, deluged the earth like the rains 
of heaven. At this critical juncture, Count Raymond, of 
Tripoli, who had always insisted on being in the van, and 
whose t:onduct from first to last had been most suspicious, 
dashed with a few followers through a party of Mussulmans, 
who opened their ranks to let them pass, and retreated to Tyre. 
The flight of this distinguished nobleman gave rise to a sudden 
panic, and the troops that were advancing to the support of 
the Templars were driven in one confused mass upon the main 
body. The Knights, who rarely turned their backs upon the 
enemy, maintained, alone and unaided, a short, sharp and 
bloody conflict, which ended in the death or captivity of every 
one of them excepting the Grand Master of the Hospital 
(Gardiner), who clove his way from the battle-field, and reached 
Ascalon, one hundred miles in the southwest, in safety, but 
died of his wounds the day after his arrival." 

"The warriors of the risen Lord went down 

In blood, and left their bones to whiten on the plain of Hattin ! 

Then sunk the Cross ; it fell ! ' Midst press of Knights, 

And bursting hearts, and wild appeals to God, 

The emblem of Salvation sunk, to rise 

On that bright pasture-land no more." 

The next thing to attract our attention was a grand view of 
the Sea of Galilee as it lay, land-locked, in its mountain cradle. 
I have read all manner of descriptions of this sheet of water. 
Many have looked upon it, only to be disappointed. Others 
have seen in it the grandest of scenery. To me it was one of 



34^ AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

the sweetest, quietest views I ever saw. We could see the 
entire circle of the lake with perfect clearness, so bright was 
the day. Its bosom was placid and unbroken by a sail of any 
kind, except two small fishing boats that lay seemingly still 
upon its surface, with all sails spread, and looking more like 
"a painted ship upon a painted ocean" than anything I ever 
beheld before. Capernaum lay far to our left, Tiberias in 
front, and the southern end to the right. Opposite lay the 
steep decline down which ran the swine that were choked in its 
waters. Every spot seemed hallowed by some incident in the 
dear Saviour's life. Upon its waves he slept as a man, to 
wake as a God, and subdue its troubled waters to sleep. 

The gospel seems to be written all over its hillside barriers, 
and nowhere v.'as there monkish chapel or burning altar to fet- 
ter the imagination to some particular spot. The descent from 
the mountain view to the seaside, is very steep and sudden, 
and the change in temperature nearly as great as the change 
from the hill country of Judea to the Dead Sea. We reached 
Tiberias about ii a. m., hot and tired, but found our lunch 
tent pitched near the lakeside, with the two boats, already 
mentioned, landed near, ready to take us for a sail after lunch. 
At this point the sea is literally swarming with fish of all kinds. 
The little fellows kept near the shore, to escape the larger ones, 
who would occasionally make lunges landward, when there 
would be a terrible fluttering among the little fellows. It 
roused all the fishing fire that was latent in my nature, and 
chartering a handline from a boy, I made some desperate but 
unsuccessful efforts to capture one of the large fish. The fish- 
ermen evidently thought I was "badly off" for meat, and gen- 
erously proposed to share with me the result of their morn- 
ing's labor with the net, for a pecuniary consideration. It was 
exceedingly difficult for me to explain to them that I was not 
wanting /is /i, but fiai. It was evidently so much like work to 
//lem, that the element of fun had long since been eliminated. 
In this they are not unlike some prosy Americans, who never 
can see any ftai in flsliing. 

The sail after dinner was a sail, but that was all. Once 
there was wind enough to fill the sails, for a few minutes, but 



NAZARETH TO THE SEA OF GALILEE. 



34; 




most of the time it was *' a dead row." As we did not 
have to do the rowing, however, we did not complain • 
but the poor boatmen, toil- 
ing- at the oars, looked ex- 
ceedingly like they would 
like to "raise the wind." 
The sea is exceedingly de- -^-^ 
ceptive in appearance. Look- n^ 
ing across it, along the route i^^g 

where the apostles were said % '" 

to have toiled day and night _ 
against a contrary wind. It 
did not appear more than ^^'■; 
twice as wide as the Missis- 
ippi River at St. Louis. 
Bro. Errett remarked to me 



GALILEE BOATS. 



while at lunch, that it hardly seemed possible they could 
have spent that time in crossing. But before our boatmen. 
had rowed from Tiberias to Capernaum, he had changed 
his mind, and wondered how they could have rowed across 
in that time if the zvind had been in their fazwr. From 
Tiberias to Tell-Hum, which is the Capernaum of the New Tes- 
tament, it is about eight miles, and took us over two and a 
half hours to make it. The greatest width is north of the cen- 
tral portion, from ancient Magdala, the home of Mary Magda- 
lene, to Gergesa, where the swine went down into the sea. The 
original name was Sea of Kinneroth, from the Hebrew Kinnor 
(lute), because of its resemblance to that instrument. In pro- 
cess of time it became changed to Gennezar, and finally Gen- 
nessaret, from the plain of that name, at its northwestern ter- 
mination. Though it now has but one or two insignificant 
fishing vessels, it formerly was navigated by a considerable fleet. 
Josephus informs us that it was the theater of more than one 
sanguinary naval combat between the Jews and Romans. Upon 
one occasion the Jews revolted under Agrippa, and Titus met 
them at Tarichaea, and most signally defeated- them. Multi- 
tudes of rebels took refuge in their war-ships upon the sea, and 
still sustained themselves. The indomitable Roman speedily 



348 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



built a fleet, and the victory was made complete. Titus, Tra- 
jan and Vespasian were all present, and witnessed the engage- 
ment. The sea and its shores were covered with the wrecks of 
vessels, blood and mangled bodies, till the whole atmosphere 
was infected. Several thousand bodies floated upon its waters, 




and twelve hundred more were murdered in cold blood in the 
amphitheater at Tiberias. Many others were presented to 
Agrippa as slaves. 

When our Lord was expelled from the hom^e of his boy- 
hood, he came and dwelt for three of the most eventful years 
of his life upon the shores of this lake. Nowhere else did he 



NAZARETH TO THE SEA OF GALILEE. 349 

perform so many and such stupendous miracles. Nowhere else 
did he meet with more signal success at the beginning and fail- 
ure at the end of his ministry. Here was the center of popu- 
lation in his day ; but how desolate now ! 

Tiberias, Magdala, Bethsaida, Capernaum, Chorazin, Gam- 
ala, Hippos, Tarichaea and Scythopolis were then proud and 
beautiful cities ; but now it is almost impossible to locate 
many of them, and such as remain are wretched mud villages. 

Our first landing-place was at Capernaum. It is now called 
Tell-Hum, and consists of a few mud houses, uninhabited, 
built upon the ruins of the ancient city. On landing, we were 
obliged to force our way up to the principal ruin through a mat- 
ted mass of thistles, which were very penetrating and painful. 
It is called the " White Synagogue," on account of the white- 
ness of the limestone of which it is composed, and is 75 feet 
long and 57 feet wide. Captain Wilson, who made the excava- 
tions which largely decided the location of the city, and who is 
probably the most competent authority to-day upon the subject, 
says: " If Tell-Hum be Capernaum, this is without doubt the 
synagogue built by the Roman Centurion." When Christ en- 
tered into Capernaum, a certain centurion's favorite servant 
was deathly sick, and those who came to ask the Saviour to go 
to him, said, " He is worthy, for he hath loved our nation, 
and hath built us a synagogue." A popular tradition also 
identifies Cornehus as the centurion, but -this is without any 
substantial foundation. 

The building was to me one of the most sacred spots that I 
beheld in all our journey. It was in this building that our 
Lord delivered the discourse, in John vi , upon the Bread 
of Life. "These things said he in the Synagogue, as he taught 
in Capernaum.'' Upon a large upturned block is engraved a 
pot of manna. It may have been this sculpture to which he 
directed the attention of the people when he said, ' ' Your 
idlhers did cat via7ina in the wilderness." Just back of these 
ruins are the foundations of the ancient city, which covers 
nearly half a square mile. From Capernaum we retraced our 
way along the shore past the ancient Bethsaida, to the Plain of 



350 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



Gennesaret, where, near the "Fig- Fountain," our tent city- 
was pitched for the night. 

After dinner, at 7 p. m. , a number of us walked down to the 
shore of the lake, and spent an hour in overlooking^ the scene by 
moon-light. I shall never forget the holy memories of that hour. 
The moon was shining brightly, and the lake was perfectly calm. 




RUINS OF A SYNAGOGUE t CAPERNAUM. 



No sound was heard but an occasional howl from a jackal in the 
distance, and the silvery ripple of the scarcely . perceptible 
waves that lapped the sand at our feet. An occasional cloud- 
let would cover for a moment the face of the moon, and throw 
its shadowy form upon the beautiful waters, and then pass 
away to leave the scene all the more beautiful for the moment- 
ary shadow. It was such a time as the poet mentions when 
he says: "The lips move not when the heart feels most." We 
sat in silence drinking in all the sweet inspirations the sur- 
roundings recalled, till, at last, one of us started with gentle 
voice : 

" O ! I love to think of Jesus 

As he sat beside the Sea, 

When the waves were only 

Murmuring on the strand." 

All joined in, and we sang it through. Then some one else 

began " Sweet Galilee, Blue Galilee," which was also sung, with 

a number of other songs suggested by the surroundings. It 

was an " evening of song " never equaled in any of our exper- 



NAZARETH TO THE SEA OF GALILEE. 35 1 

iences, and probably never will be surpassed till we shall sing 
with sweeter cadence than mortal tongue can sing, the song of 
Moses and the Lamb, upon the sapphire shores of God's eter- 
nal Sea of Life. 

The saddest thoughts in connection with our visit to Gali- 
lee, were in beholding the truth of Christ's prophetic maledic- 
tion upon the queenly cities that once crowned its shores. As 
I rode up the hillside in the morning sunlight, and turned to 
take my farewell view of its natural beauty audits artificial 
desolation, I could not help recalling the mournful but truthful 
words of the Master, "Woe unto thee, Chorazin ! Woe unto 
thee, Bethsaida ! for if the mighty works which were done in 
you, had been done in Tyre or Sidon, they would have re- 
pented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, 
it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judg- 
ment, than for you ; and thou, Capernaum, which art exalted 
unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell. For if the mighty 
works which have been done in thee, were done in Sodom, it 
would have remained unto this day. But I say unto you. It 
shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of 
judgment, than for thee." 



SEA OF GALILEE TO DAMASCUS. 

Shortly after leaving the Sea we came to a large building 
named Khan Yubb Yusef, said by some to be the place where 
Joseph's brothers sold him to the Midianite merchants; the 
khan is a modern structure, and used as a fold for shelter- 
ing sheep. We did not stop long, having no faith in 
the tradition, and having learned, by experience, to give 
Palestine sheep a wide berth, if one desires to sleep well 
at night. With the exception of a traveling harem, with 
its attendant guards, the property of one of the Turkish rulers 
of that province, we met with nothing of importance during 
this day's ride except to pass along the waters of Merom, or 
Lake Huleh, celebrated in the Bible as the place where Jabin- 
and his neighbor kings combined together to oppose the ad- 
vance of Joshua. But Joshua was quite a strategist, and com- 
ing suddenly upon them, broke the combination. Joshua was not 
only a good fighter, but he was always careful to guard against 
future troubles with the enemy by going on the principle that 
dead men tell no tales. We camped for the night at Ain 
Belot, and next morning rode across the plain to Tell-el-Kadi, 
which corresponds with the Dan of the Bible. The ruins are 
buried beneath a large mound, which formed the ancient fortress 
and northern boundary line of Palestine, as Beersheba was the 
southern point. Hence, in speaking of the entire country, they 
used to say ' ' from Dan to Beersheba, " very much as we Ameri- 
cans say "from New York to San Francisco," I do n't know 
that "from New York to San Francisco " has more in it than 
" from Dan to Beersheba," but it certainly has more betzveen it. 

The conquest of the pre-Jewish inhabitants I consider, if 
viewed from a merely human standpoint, the most disgraceful 
piece of unmitigated cruelty ever perpetrated by one people 
upon another, with the possible exception of the conquest of the 




TRAVELING HAREM. 



Page 353. 



SEA OF GALILEE TO DAMASCUS. 355 

North American Indians by our Christian forefathers, and, ^to 
some extent, kept up by our own righteous selves of to-day. 
When the Danites " sought them an inheritance to dwell in,' ' they 
sent out some men to look for good land. These wandered over 
the mountains till they happened to light upon this beautiful spot 
at the base of Mount Hermon, well watered by the fountains 
which form the head waters of the Jordan. They took in the sit- 
uation at a glance, and went back at once to report : ' ' We have 
seen the land, and behold, it is very good. " As a proof of this 
they told their brethren, ' ' There is no want of anything there is in 
the earth." They evidently were much impressed with the fine 
countrythey had seen, for they were very anxious to go back 
again. So they exhorted their brethren to "be not slothful to 
go, and to enter to posess the land." They had caught the 
"western fever," and wanted to "enter" land at once. 

When men take one bad step, another is always before 
them. Good and bad are equally logical in this respect. Hav- 
ing started out to murder and kill a people which they found, 
upon their own report, to be "at quiet" and a "serene" 
people, they next wanted a religion that would indorse that 
sort of thing. They stopped on their way at the house of 
Micah, who, it seems, had a religion of his own. He had a priest, 
a graven image, a molten image, an ephod, and teraphim They 
took these all away from Micah, and went on their way with 
a " new religion " that was not quite so strict as their old one. 
Men sometimes get to complaining about the strictness of 
their old religion and desire a new one, that is up to the times. 
They slew all the inhabitants of Laish and took possession, 
calling the country after the name of their father, Dan. Looked 
at from the merely human standpoint, this seems simply to be an 
outrage. I have presented the case in favor of the Laishites as 
favorably as I possibly could. But I have long since learned that 
there are two sides to every question. Let us see what can be 
said in favor of Dan. While these Canaanites were "at quiet 
and serene, " they were doubtless somewhat like the Sodom- 
ites, who were "at quiet and serene" also, unto the day of 
their doom. They were among the wicked Canaanites, who 
had become utterly incorrigible, and doubtless the Divine mind 



356 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

saw that the only thing to do was to destroy them from the 
face of the earth. He did it, not directly, as in the case of 
Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Flood, but used the people of 
Israel as a means and war as the agency of destruction. This 
was the part of the country allotted to Dan, and Divine or- 
ders had been issued for them to possess the land. Indeed, 
when Jacob blessed his sons, it seemed that he had foreknowl- 
edge of what Dan's portion should be. " Dan shall judge his 
people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent 
by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horses' heels, 
so that his rider shall fall backwards." 

Dan in Hebrew means "a Judge," and Tell El Kadi in 
Arabic means "Hill of the Judge." Moses also prophesied 
similarly. And of Dan he said, " Dan is a lion's whelp; he 
shall leap from Bashan." I have thus purposly taken up both 
sides of this case, as it is a fair specimen of the alleged cruelties 
in which, according to infidels, the Old Testament abounds. 
I think there is much in what the infidel philosophers call 
"the survival of the fittest," and do not see why they should, 
complain if this otherwise universal law be applied to the 
human race in its national existence. The Indian question is 
not without two sides, and it would be quite an effervescing 
sentimentalist that would not pause before declaring that the 
civilization of America, even at the outlay of life arid sacrifice 
that has been made, is not better than to have left it in 
possession of the aboriginal tribes. The journey from Dan 
to Caesarea Philippi occupies about an hour. It has been 
most admirably described by Dean Stanley: "With Dan, 
the Holy Land properly terminates. But the easternmost 
source of the Jordan, about four miles distant, is so intimately 
connected with it, both by historical and geographical associa- 
tion, that we must go forward yet a little way into the bosom 
of Hermon. Over an unshaded carpet of turf — through trees 
and every variety of foliage — through a park-like verdure, 
which casts a strangely beautiful interest over this last recess 
of Palestine, the pathway winds, and the snowy top of the 
mountain itself is gradually shut out from view by its increas- 
ing nearness ; and again there is the rush of waters through , 




HAREM GUARD. 



Page 357. 



SEA OF GALILEE TO DAMASCUS. 



359 



deep thickets, and the ruins of an ancient town, not Canaanite, 
but Roman, rises on the hillside — in its situation, in its exur- 
berance of water^ in its olive groves, and its views over the 
distant plain, almost a Syrian Tivoli." 

We camped in one of the olive groves just upon the bank 




SOUTHERN GATE OF CiESAREA PHILLIPPI. 



of the rushing, roaring torrent, and had not been in camp ten 
minutes till Bro. Moore had cut two "poles," and I had 
gotten out the tackle, and we were being engineered by an 
Arab boy, who could not talk a single word of English, but 
knew the language of angle-worms and grasshoppers to perfec- 
tion. The stream abounds in fish, but they are mostly " suck- 
ers," and Bro. Moore and I being a little too old to spend much 
time in catching suckers, soon returned to camp. Caesa- 
rea Philippi is known among the Syrians as Banias, which is a 
corruption of the Greek Paneas, so called from the sanctuary 
of Pan, the god of music, who was worshiped here. 

Previous to the worship of Pan, it was doubtless used as a 
sanctuary of Baal. It is the Baal-gad of the Bible, and repre- 
sents the northern line of Joshua's conquests. "Joshua took 
all the land, even from the Mount of Habak, that goeth up 
out of Seir, even unto Baal-gad, in the valley of Lebanon, under 
Mount Hermon." It was here that Peter made the grand 



360 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

confession, which Christ has constituted the foundation of his 
church. As Mt. Hermon is now almost universally regarded 
as the scene of the transfiguration, it was evidently here also that 
the demoniac boy was healed. Many also locate the healing 
of the Syro-Phoenician woman at this place. Eusebius is 
authority for this. He states that in his own time, the house 
of the woman was still shown, and also a statue that com- 
memorated the event. " At the gate of her house, on an ele- 
vated stone, stands a brazen image of a woman on her knees, 
with her hands stretched out before her like one entreating. 
Opposite this is another image, of a man, erect, of the same 
material, decently clad in a mantle, and stretching out his 
hand to the woman. This, they say, is a statue of Christ, and 
it has remained even to our time, so that I myself saw it when 
I was in the city."* This was the northern limit of Christ's 
travels, and from here he started back to Jerusalem to die, 

The modern village has about fifty houses and a few small 
shops. On the roof of each dwelling there were booths made 
of green boughs. They are used as sleeping apartments in 
summer, as the houses during that season literally swarm with 
lizards, scorpions and vermin. The fountain, which is the 
principal source of the Jordan, bursts out from under a high 
cliff, and at once starts off in a mad torrent, fretting itself into 
foam among the sharp rocks. Just in the background is the 
cliff into which the grotto extends some sixty feet. It is 
nearly as large as an ordinary meeting-house. As the rest of 
the party visited the grotto while Bro, Moore and I were on 
the fishing expedition, we were obliged to visit it by moon- 
light. Having some magnesium wire, we lighted it, and made 
the exploration with greater satisfaction than we could have 
done by daylight. 

After the fall of Jerusalem, Titus celebrated that event at 
this place by a series of bloody conflicts, in which the captive 
Jews were compelled to fight each other and wild beasts, for 
his amusement. 

In the fourth century a bishopric was founded here, subject 

■J'Hist. Ecc., vi. 18. 



SEA OF GALILEE TO DAMASCUS. 



361 



to the patriarchate of Antioch. During the time of the Cru- 
sades it was repeatedly conquered. 

The o-ateway shown in our illustration is all that is left of 
its magnificent defenses. It stands just across the Jordan from 




our camp, at the north end of the bridge that spans this branch 
of the Jordan, which rumbles and thunders under the stone 
archway of the bridge. 

The next day our course lay along the side of Mount 



362 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

Hermon, reaching an altitude of nearly six thousand feet 
About 3 p. M. we reached the highest peak in. our path, and 
paused a while to take in the view, which is one of the nnost 
extensive in Palestine. On our left, Mount Hermon still rises 
almost five thousand feet above us, on our right the whole val- 
ley of the Jordan can be seen nearly to its mouth, while before 
us the great plain of Damascus stretches out, and far in the dis- 
tance that city, embowered in living green, makes an oasis in the 
great desert. From this point we rapidly descended, and 
soon found ourselves along the banks of the Pharpar, following 
its course to Damascus. We camped for the night near Kefr 
Hauwar, a small fanatical Moslem village. Our dragoman warned 
us that we were approaching the most fanatical Moslem city in 
the world, and we should be on our guard against any expres- 
sions of displeasure with their customs. The pass over which 
we had passed during the day, was the most bleak and uninter- 
esting of all our rides. It is, however, one of the most ancient 
of highways, being, most probably, the way along which 
Abraham pursued Chedorlaomer and his confederates from 
Dan to Damascus. Moreover, it must have been the natural 
route for Saul in his journey to the capital of Syria. 

From Kefr Hauwar to Damascus is a long, weary ride 
over the plain, with but little to attract the attention of the 
traveler. The people of Kefr Hauwar are a very bigoted pop- 
ulation of Moslems, and we were warned to be on our guard 
against giving offense. It was the people of this country who 
were so active, twenty-five years ago, when the terrible mas- 
sacre occurred in this portion of Syria. We stopped for lunch 
at the junction of the great caravan road with the Banias and 
Damascus route. This spot is forever memorable as the place 
where Saul of Tarsus was met by the Saviour, on his blood- 
thirsty mission to the same city toward which we were travel- 
ing. Whether it is the precise spot, no one can tell ; but as we 
stood there, the sacred narrative came with vividness to mind : 
"As he journeyed, he came near Damascus; and suddenly 
there shined round about him a light from heaven, and he fell 
to the earth, and heard a voice" saying unto him, Saul, Saul, 
why persecutest thou me? And he, trembling and astonished, 



SEA OF GALILEE TO DAMASCUS. 363 

said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? And the Lord said 
unto him, Arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee 
what thou must do. And Saul arose from the earth, and 
when his eyes were opened he saw no man ; but they took 
him by the hand and brought him into Damascus." 

We camped that night only a few miles out from Damas- 
cus, and all were pleased with the thought that it was only a 
short ride next morning into the city. The lights were out 
early, and no one could be heard after 9 o'clock, but the steady 
tramp of the guards, or their shrill whistles, as they thus called 
to each other that all was right. About midnight I was rudely 
awakened by the sharp crack of a rifle, which was followed in 
a few seconds by half a dozen others. I sprang up and rushed 
to the back of the tent, from whence the sounds came, and, 
opening the curtains, looked out. It was anything but a 
pleasant view that greeted me. In the distance, perhaps a 
mile away upon the plain, could be seen the dim outlines of a 
number of horsemen and footmen mixed up in considerable 
confusion. Shots were now following each other in rapid suc- 
cession, and there was, evidently, a good deal of trouble. 
Upon one side were the bright, quick flashes of carbines, that 
were being discharged with precision and order. Upon the 
other side it was evident that the firing was from shotguns and 
revolvers, discharged in a wild and reckless manner. Bro. 
Errett was sleeping very soundly, and was not awakened at 
first by the firing. Bro. Moore also seemed to be asleep, although 
afterwards he thought he was awake from the beginning. I 
stood it as long as I could by myself, and at las*^ roused them 
and told them somebody was getting hurt. By this time one side 
was on the retreat, and there was a running fire which would 
occasionally lull, and then break out afresh. There was a wild 
huzzah upon the one side and a shrill cry of pain upon the 
other as the firing was going on, which made me feel, in the lan- 
guage of Mark Twain's Uncle Daniel, " Dat some pore sinner 
was a cetchin ' it." My first impression was that there was 
trouble between the Moslems and a party of M. E. American 
ministers, who were making the same tour as ourselves, and 
often camped near our party. There was also a German Count 



3^4 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

and party, and General Noble and party, from England, going 
over the same territory. We knew if that were the case there 
was no telling how soon they would be upon us, so we got up 
and dressed. I would not have any of the readers think from 
this action that we were afraid. We felt as though we might 
have company, and should be prepared to receive them. It is 
not customary to receive company in "robes de nuit, " even 
among the Arabs. I wish to emphasize the fact that we were 
not afraid, for we all said so next morning — at least every- 
body that expressed themselves. Some of us were a little 
non-committal on the question. The firing was kept up for 
about half an hour, in which time I presume there were be- 
tween one hundred and one hundred and fifty shots fired. It 
was certainly very interesting, for I was compelled to look at 
it nearly all the time. At length I could see by the flashes 
that the line was coming towards our camp, and it then took 
an additional interest. At last I saw one poor fellow run out 
of a wheat field, and falling upon his hands and knees, begin 
to crawl towards our camp. He approached within a hundred 
yards, and called out something in Arabic, and our guards, 
who had watched the whole thing with interest, broke from 
our camp and ran to meet him, and hurried him into camp, 
and placed some blankets over him, and were back at their 
posts in a few minutes, as stolid as ever. After this I went 
out and asked our conductor, who was up and talking with 
some Arabs, what it all meant. He replied that there was 
nothing wrong ; the villagers were only having a httle fun. I 
thought to myself they had a strange idea of fun — almost as 
strange as the old Kentucky toper, who had taken "a little 
too much," and was relieving disgusted nature by gigantic up- 
heavals. A neighbor passed by, and asked him if he was sick. 
" Oh no !" he replied, " I do this for fun." I went to my tent 
and slept very soundly, however, till daylight. About day- 
light they came to our tent and demanded the man that was 
hidden. Our conductor replied that we had none. There was 
such a sharp altercation over it that every one was aroused, 
and the soldiers, seeing that trouble would be provoked by 
searching the camp forcibly, finally left us and rode away. 



SEA OF GALILEE TO DAMASCUS. 365 

After breakfast our conductor came to me, and begged pardon 
for "fibbing" to me the night before. He then informed us 
that a small battle had been fought on the plain between a de- 
tachment of Turkish cavalry and a party of Mount Hermon 
tobacco smugglers, or, in Western parlance, "Moonshiners." 
The man who had run into our camp was a smuggler, 
and happened to be a relative of some of our guards. 
He threw himself upon our protection, and, according to 
the law of Bedouin hospitality, our conductor was obliged 
to protect him. The Bedouins believe that if a man comes 
into their tents and craves protection, they are obliged to 
defend him, no matter what his cause may be. This man, 
being a relative of our guards, we could do nothing else, for 
they would have rebelled on the spot, which our conductor 
knew. The next morning, when the sun rose over the glitter- 
ing minarets and gilded domes of Damascus, and looked down 
upon the plain, it shone upon the cold, pale faces of three 
dead smugglers, and upon the form of another writhing in the 
last agonies of death. Whether there were any soldiers 
wounded we could not tell, as there were none left — but they 
must evidently have suffered some loss, for the poor smug- 
glers fought like heroes, and were only dispersed after a spirited 
engagement. We took our smuggler into Damascus, and in 
doing so, ran considerable risk, for if the Turkish commandant 
had found it out, he would have given us trouble- As we rode 
into Damascus, we passed a small detachment of soldiery in 
camp, and under some tents were some poor, ragged, wretched 
looking prisoners, which we took to be the ones captured the 
night previous. We took up our quarters at the Victoria 
Hotel, vv^hich, though not good in comparison with European 
or American hotels, was decidedly the best we found in Africa 
or Asia. 

From my earliest boyhood I had longed to visit Damascus. 
I had read of its antiquity and oriental splendor, and had 
woven a vision of its wilderness of fruits and flowers, its groves 
of green, and fountains of dashing waters, its deep glades red- 
olent with the jasmine and eglantine, and with a heart beating 
with emotion, I entered its streets lined with ugly mud walls 



366 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

upon both sides, hoping all the time for the real Damascus to 
come in sight. 

But I must confess to a supreme disappointment, after hav- 
ing made a thorough inspection of it. Damascus is one of 
the ugliest, dirtiest, greasiest cities that I have seen in all my 
travels. My former conceptions were made up from such un- 
reliable authority as "Arabian Nights," etc. It was mingled 
in my mind with Bagdad, Mecca, and the wonderful Lamp of 
Aladdin. To all who contemplate traveling in Syria, and 
are possessed of such roseate views concerning this city, I 
would say by all means to remain in blissful ignorance of Da- 
mascus, by staying away. While I should most probably have 
regretted not going had I omitted to do so while in Syria, I 
shall certainly always regret having done so, now that it is over. 
Yet I would not convey the idea that it is a city devoid of in- 
terest. It has a most wonderful history. It is the oldest city in 
the world, being founded by Uz, the grandson of Noah. Abra- 
ham doubtless trod its streets, and his servant was a native of 
the city. It figures largely in the history of the wars of the 
Jews, and prophetic utterances concerning it abound in the 
writings of the Old Testament. In New Testament times it 
will ever be remembered as the place where Paul obeyed the 
gospel and had his sins washed away. Here, after his conver- 
sion, " he preached Christ in the synagogue, that he is the 
Son of God, . . . and confounded the Jews that dwelt at 
Damascus, proving that this is very Christ." And when the 
p-overnor under Aretas, the king, sought to arrest him, he was 
let down through the wall in a basket, and escaped. The 
place is still shown where this was done, and the grave of St. 
George, the porter, who opened the window for the apostle to 
escape. If not the real place, it is at least a house built upon 
the ancient wall, and illustrates, no doubt, exactly how it was 
done. 

Christianity flourished greatly at Damascus from that time 
till the reign of Constantine, when it became so powerful that 
the great Temple, which was originally a heathen temple, 
built either by the Seleucidae or the successors of Alexander 
the Great, was turned into a Christian Church, and the place 



SEA OF GALILEE TO DAMASCUS. 



367 



once sacred to Jupiter, became consecrated to Jesus. At the 
Council of Nice, A. d. 325, Damascus was represented by a 
rnetropolitan bishop, attended by seven suffragans. Though 
the Cross has been for centuries displaced by the Crescent, and 
the noble church has been turned into a Mohammedan mosque, 
yet the inscription placed over the door by the son of Theodo- 
sius has been preserved by some wonderful providence, and in 
defiance of the Turks, speaks out the prophetic notes of a day 
when Jesus shall reign over the hearts of the bigoted but 
blinded Damascenes: " Thy kingdom, O Christ, is a kingdom 
of all ages, and thy dominion lasts throughout all generations." 
It is very strange that such a protest against their sacrilege 
should have been so long suffered or overlooked by the mos- 
lemSj who are generally so anxious to destroy all Christian em- 
blems and teachings. 

There are many interesting things inside this mosque. The 
interior itself is very impressive, and the mosiac adornments 
belong to the Christian period of its history. The pulpit is a 
most handsome piece of wood carving, and in the transept is a 
chapel said to contain the heart of John the Baptist, which 




TOMB OF THE HEAD OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. 



they claim was found in the crypt of the church. But havmg 
seen the burial-place of John at one or two previous places to 
this, it did not strike me with " the force of a new revelation." 



368 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

There is also a sacred fountain in which sick people used to 
wash, which is said to possess the old " kill or xure " G^C3.cy . 

It did not have any patronage while we were there, nor 
did it look as though it had lately done much " business." It 
struck me, however, as a good place in which to dip Christians 
that are affected with such diseases as "Sunday sickness," 
"prayer-meeting chills," "Sunday-school prostration," "anti- 
missionary malaria," etc. If it did not effect a cure, it would 
glorify God, in destroying the drones in the church hive. 



DAMASCUS TO BEYROUT. 



In this same place they also show the spot where Naaman 
deposited his holy soil on returning from his visit to the Jor- 
dan. The story is found 
in n. Kings v., but for 
fear some of our readers 
will not turn to it, and 
possibly some can not, I 
will insert part of it. I 
have quoted a good deal 
of Scripture in my Pales- 
tine letters, more so than 
any of our readers need, 
but I am determined that 
those good people who 
never read the Scriptures 
shall have an occasional 
item, of "news" as we 
proceed. "When he had 
been healed he said, 
Behold, now I know that 
there is no God in all the 
earth but in Israel. Shall 
there not then, I pray thee, 
be given to thy servant, 
two mules burden of earth ? For thy servant will henceforth 
offer neither burnt ojTering nor sacrifice unto other gods but unto 
the Lord. In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that 
when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship 
there, and leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house 

of Rimmon ; when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon the 

369 




THE ' STREET CALLED STRAIGHT. 



370 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

Lord pardon thy servant in this thing. " So the earth was given 
and the spot where it was deposited is shown. 

"The street which is cahed straight " is visited by all trav- 
elers. It is not straight, neither does Luke say it is, nor is it 
architecturally beautiful, but it is undoubtedly upon the very 
site where Saul found it. In recent excavations they have 
found many of the pillars of the old colonnade. "The house 
of Judas " is shown, as also that of "Ananias." To show 
the profound erudition with which our party is running over, I 
will state that when, we reached the latter place and the guide 
so informed us, the American Consul, who is a member of our 
party, remarked, " Well ! we have reached the house of thai 
notorious liar at last.'' I felt ashamed of my country for a few 
moments, till an Englishman remarked, "Yes, I told my wife 
this morning that today we would see the house of that infam- 
ous old blackguard. " Since then I have studied over their talk 
not a little. It may be that they confounded the Damascene 
with the Jerusalem Ananias; or,' perhaps, they may have 
been honest enough to speak out what a great many people 
in the United States seem to believe about the instruction Ana- 
nias gave to Paul concerning the pardon of his sins. From 
this street we visited the Christian Quarter, where it was de- 
lightful for women to be seen with their faces uncovered and 
dressed in white, the Christian color. Most of the Damascus 
ladies wear huge veils, over which twinkle their black eyes 
and behind which generally is a very ugly face. The veil, how- 
ever, is gradually becoming more repugnant to Mohammedan 
women, and they are beginning, especially in the higher cir- 
cles, to wear a sort of compromise in the form of a gauzy 
cloth, which half discloses the covered lower portion of the 
face, while the upper part is entirely bare. This Quarter is 
famous in the history of Damascus, as the site of the terrible 
massacre of i860, where it is estimated that 6000 Christians 
perished in two days It began in petty persecutions which 
advanced unpunished, till the fanatical hordes were led to sur- 
mise what has since been demonstrated to be the truth, viz : 
the government was in sympathy ivitli persecution. 

In the afternoon of July 9th the Christian Quarter was in 



DAMASCUS TO BEYROUT. 



371 



flames, and the hunted fugitives surrounded by fire and steel. 
Many rushed to the British Consulate for protection As the 
night drew on, hordes of Arabs, Druses and Kurds entered 
the city, and the cruel work was begun in earnest. Hundreds 




THE COMPROMISE. 



were slain, their wives hurried off to distant parts of the 
country and married to Turks or treated with greater indignity. 
The men who apostatized were compelled to be circumcised, 
then immediately put to death. The authorities took no pre- 
caution against it, but on the contrary connived at and fos- 
tered it. In all the city there was but one man brave enough 
to do his duty, by standing as a wall against the oppressors. 
He stood between the dead and dying and their persecutors, 
and did all in his power to save them. As fast as his Algerines 
brought in victims, they were hurried to places of protection 
and guarded. The castle, the churches and public buildings, 
and even his own house were filled with poor, miserable, fright- 
ened, starving wretches, for whose blood the angry populace 



372 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

were furiously clamoring, At last the old soldier Abd-el- 
Kader himself was menaced. The mob rushed in swelling num- 
bers towards his home, declaring they would have the ' ' infidel 
dogs." Being informed of the movement, the old hero 
coolly ordered his horse to be saddled, put on his cuirass and 
helmet, and, mounting, drew his sword. His faithful guard 
and comrades on many a well-fought battle-field, drew up in si- 
lent devotion around him. They knew him and his works. 
They rem.embered that years before he had led them, twenty-five 
hundred strong, against the king of Morocco, sixty thousand 
strong, and fully routed him against such fearful odds. Though 
he should lead them against their own people and religion, 
they determined not to forsake him now. The yelling mob 
rolled down upon them. Single handed and alone he charged 
up into their midst and halted. "Wretches," he exclaimed, 
'*is this the way you honor the Prophet? May his curses be 
upon you ! Shame upon you ! Shame! You will yet live to 
repent. You think you may do as you please with the Chris- 
tians, but the day of retribution will come. The Franks will 
yet turn your mosques into churches. Not a Christian will I 
give up. They are my brofhers. Stand back, or I will give 
my men the order to fire." They knew his words were no 
idle boasts, and no man in that crowd was so maddened, but 
looking into the guns of his faithful soldiery caused Jiim to 
stop and reflect. The dreadful slaughter spread through all 
the towns and villages of Syria. Especially was the slaughter 
terrible in the beautiful Christian Zaleh, nestled among the 
Lebanon mountains. The inhabitants being nearly all Chris- 
tians, and hearing the fearful news from Damascus, armed 
themselves at once, and when their tormentors came were pre- 
pared to welcome them. The Turkish authorities, however, 
persuaded them to surrender their weapons, upon a solemn 
assurance of protection. The Christians had no sooner done 
so, than they were immediately set upon and almost entirely 
destroyed. It is almost impossible for me to realize that in 
my own recollection people have been thus mistreated whose 
only crime was that they were followers of Christ. 

In addition to the great Mosque, Street called Straight, and 




KHAN' AT DAMASCUS. 



Page 373. 



DAMASCUS TO BEYROUT. 375 

Christian Quarters, we were shown the Bazaars, which are a 
great curiosity in their way. We have a Booksellers' Bazaar, 
where none but Mohammedan books are sold ; Tobacco Ba- 
zaar, which did not interest me ; Boot and Shoe Bazaar, 
whose shops were covered with such articles all in bright colors 
and handsomely embroidered ; Coppersmith Bazaar ; Greek 
Bazaar, where Damascus blades are sold ; Saddlers' Bazaar ; 
Old Clo' Bazaar, which is very much like our second-hand 
stores ; and lastly, Silk Bazaar, where all tourists must make 
some purchase of silk goods to be at all respectable among 
their fellow travelers. In addition to the Bazaars, there are 
numerous Khans, where the wholesale trade is carried on. 
They are the property of wealthy men, generally Persian mer- 
chants, where such articles as Manchester prints, India mus- 
lins and Persian rugs and carpets are sold. 

Then we visited the Jewish Quarters, Moslem Quarters, 
Tomb of Saladin, House of Naaman, Mausoleum of Fatima, 
sister of the Prophet, and lastly rode around the whole city. 
We spent three days there, and I speak the universal senti- 
ment of our party when I say it was a great relief to be able to en- 
ter tent life once more. From Damascus we took two days to 
reach Baalbec, which, indeed, is one of the world's wonders. 

Our route for several miles from Damascus was by the 
French Diligence Road, a most excellent one, and quite an 
engineering feat for that country. At Dummar we left the 
road and turned into a gorge, bleak and sandy, without any- 
thing to interest a traveler, except a rock-tunnel, supposed to 
have been made by Queen Zenobia to conduct the waters from 
the Lebanon mountains to her Capital, Palmyra. In a short 
time we entered a glen filled with tall and graceful poplars and 
at whose feet we could hear the continual rush of a mountain 
stream, now called the Barada, but known to Bible-readers 
as the Abana. At noon we stopped for lunch just 
above the Fountain of Fijeh. This is the largest fountain 
I- ever saw. It comes up from under a mountain side with 
such force as to hurl back a stone the size of a man's fist when 
cast into it. Over it stand the stone walls of an ancient Pheni- 
cian temple, built, as is generally supposed, in honor of the 



3/6 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

God of the fountain. Through a portal it rushes out and 
forms a swirHng, boiling pool about thirty feet in diameter, 
and then rushes madly off, a good-sized Syrian river. It oc- 
cured to me that such a spot must be the paradise of fishes. As 
the warm sun was calling out the daisies and mallows from the 
soil, and making me think of the " dog- wood blossom" at 
home, I could not resist the temptation to rig up a cast, 
however primitive it might be, and try my luck. Into this 
pool I cast my worm, and soon had floundering upon the bank 
a fish about thirteen inches in length. It had, as nearly as I 
can compare it, the shape and color of a salmon, and the 
mouth of a grayling. Just such a fish I had never seen, and 
as the biting was good, I did not stop to examine. It was 
not long till I had all the Arab boys in camp around me, and 
jabbering and fussing as you never saw, for the prey. By the 
time I was satiated and began to look around, every blessed 
fish I had caught had been " Arabed " away, and I never saw 
them more. As I am not a great lover of fish, I did not care 
for them, only that I had been cheated out of an examination 
that might have given me more light as to their species If a 
man would travel through this country fixed for it, I am sure 
he would have very fine sport, though I doubt if he could find 
anything better than the black bass of our own country. This 
was not my only attempt in a piscatorial way. At Caesarea 
Philippi is another delightful spot for the angler. 

The' Jordan at this point springs out of an enormous foun- 
tain at the base of snow-capped Hermon, and rushes off over 
a rocky bed, forming an ideal trout stream. Once or twice I 
had a rise which looked remarkably like trout, but did not suc- 
ceed in fastening any. Two days after, while nooning upon the 
bank of the Pharpar, near the spot where it is supposed Saul 
was converted, I took a line, and, finding a willow rod about 
six feet long, went up the stream to a little water-mill, which 
was grinding away very industriously, and turning out a little 
more flour than could be ground by a good Yankee coffee-mill, I 
cast into the little pool below the cascade. It was not long till 
I got a vigorous bite, and pulled up a fish not over seven inches 
long. It was more like our western salmon than anything 



DAMASCUS TO BEYROUT. 37/ 

else, though having some marks I had never noticed upon the 
salmon. In a few minutes I had landed six of them, besides 
three small trout. 

Our route from El-Fijeh was up the course of the stream, 
crossing and recrossing it quite frequently during the after- 
noon, till we arrived at Barada, which is the Abilene of the 
New Testament. Luke refers to it in his gospel (iii. i ), 
"Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, 
Pontius Pilate being Governor of Judea, and Herod being tet- 
rarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and 
of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abi- 
lene.'' This same Lysanias was assassinated at Cleopatra's com* 
mand, and his tetrarchy passed to Philip. 

Perched upon the top of a high hill is the tomb of Abel, 
near the spot where he was killed (?). Just how that tomb 
could have been preserved through the flood the reader must 
judge for. himself If it was not Abel's it must have been 
some one else's, so we passed on out into the beautiful plain of 
Zebdany, a richly cultivated plain two or three miles wide and 
in the center of which lies the village of Zebdany, one of the 
most beautiful villages in Syria. We camped for the night at 
the village of Yahfufeh, near the tomb of Seth, third son of 
Noah. It is not remarkable except for length, being over one 
hundred feet. Early next morning we took the saddle for 
Baalbec, where we arrived at noon. This was, to some ex- 
tent, the most delightful experience of our journey. I do not 
feel able to say much about it for the reason that I know, so 
little, and have not been able to learn more. I found there upon 
a space of ground less than 800 feet square, more ruins than 
all those in Rome put together. There are grand stones lying 
in a wall, twenty feet from the ground, that could not be 
moved by all the machinery of our times. 

They are large enough to permit of a double-track railway 
to be built upon their surface, and longer than an ordinary 
meeting-house. Who put them there, or how, I have not 
been able to learn. The quarries from whence they were 
taken lie southeast of the ruins, and the marks of the stonecut- 
ter are everywhere to be seen. In our illustration we give a 



3/8 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

view of one of the stones still in the quarry. Some idea of 
their immense size may be gained by contrasting them with 
the men to be seen upon them. 









>;-s^.^*5^^^^^j^' y^^ 



STONE IN THE QUARRY AT BAALBEC. 



Baalbec seems, like the Sphynx, to have none other than a 
mysterious ministry. They neither touch the great world of 
to-day nor tell us of their mysterious masters. Like Barnum's 
What is it? they challenge an idle curiosity without the power 
to satisfy it. 

Some take the ground that this is the summer residence of 
King Solomon, built for his Egyptian wife. But about the 
best thing I have read upon this wonder is from the pen of the 
eminent Dean Stanley. " Baalbec stands supreme, and may 
well close this series of the Sanctuaries of anti-Lebanon. Its 
identification with any Biblical site must remain extremely un- 
certain. It may possibly be Baalath, the frontier city of Solo- 
mon, or Baalhamon, the pleasure garden of Canticles, or Baal- 
Hermon, the scantuary of Baal in Hermon, or Baal-Gad, ' the 
gathering' 'under Hermon.' But against each of these sup- 
positions tliqre are objections which must prevent us from coming 
to any positive conclusion upon the subject. Of its general 
importance, however, there can be no question. The size and 



DAMASCUS TO BEYROUT. 379 

beauty of the buildings render them at once a physical land- 
mark and a historical monument which no notice of Syria can 
omit. In vastness of plan combined with elaborateness and 
delicacy of execution, they seem to surpass all others in 
Western Asia, in Africa, and in Europe. 

" ' No, not in Egypt's ruined land 

Nor mid the Grecian isles, 

Tower monuments so vast, so grand, 

As Baalbec's early piles ; 

Baalbec, thou city of the sun. 

Why art thou silent, mighty one ? ' 

' The traveler roams amid thy mighty rocks, 

And searches after light ; 

So searched the Romans and the Turks, 

But all was hid in night : 

Phoenicians reared thy pillars tall, 

But did the genii build thy wall?' 

"The temples are three, viz: The Great Temple, about 
150 by 300 feet in dimensions. It was surrounded by fifty-four 
columns, seventeen on each side and ten at each end. They 
are about six feet in diameter and sixty feet high. There are 
only six of these standing, many of them having been over- 
turned by the Turks, to secure their iron clamps. On a lower 
platform stands the Temple of the Sun. There is nothing finer 
in all the world's ruins than this magnificent temple. It was 
formerly ornamented with forty-six columns, nineteen of which 
remain standing. One of the columns has fallen against the 
temple wall and has for more than a century been in a leaning 
attitude. The Circular Temple is at the edge of the modern 
village and, though small in comparison with the others, is no 
less richly ornamented. It is surrounded with eight monolith 
pillars, and the walls are ornamented by a richly carved frieze 
of flowers. It is rapidly sinking into ruin, and the traveler in 
the near future will find it only a heap of stones.'' 

From Baalbec to Beyrout is a two days' journey down the 
beautiful Plain of Lebanon and over the range of the Lebanon 
Mountains. We stopped at Kerak Nuh to visit the Tomb of 
Noah, which is about two feet wide and one hundred and sixty 
feet long. In fact all the tombs of these old patriarchs seem 



380 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

to be unusually long; but then we must remember that the 
patriarchs themselves were noted for their longevity. 

Thus our party enters the Christian city of Beyrout, after 
a month's wandering through the " Holy Fields " of a country 
forever sacred to the followers of the Son of God, with grateful 
hearts that our Heavenly Father's watchful care has been over 
us through it all. We began to separate, and it was with sad 
hearts we saw our little pilgrim family break up, but, like all 
families of earth, it must have an end, for that only is eternal 
which embraces the whole family, which is in Heaven and in 
earth. 

In bidding adieu to this land, we feel that we leave it with 
more faith in the historic value and accuracy of the Bible than 
when we entered it. Everything we saw tended to throw 
fresh light upon it. Capt. Conder, at the end of his long work 
in that country, sums up the result of his investigations in the 
following propositions, which the land would discover if no 
Bible had ever been written : 

1. The Hebrews were a people of common stock with the 
Semitic inhabitants of Mesopotamia, but separating from them 
at an early historic period. 

2. They worshiped Jehovah at least as early as 900 b. c. , 
and probably much earlier. 

3. They possessed an art of monumental writing, and an 
alphabet of common origin with that of Phoenicia and Moab 
some centuries before 700 b. c, and possibly as early as 1500 

B, C. 

4. They were pastoral agriculturists, craftsman and traders. 
They possessed horses and chariots, flocks and herds, fenced 
cities and villages. 

5. The Hebrew monarchs were attended by slaves and 
musicians, made use of ivory thrones, and had treasuries of 
gold, silver, and precious stones, precious woods, and other 
articles of foreign origin. They defied at times even the As- 
syrian kings, and allied themselves with Egyptians and Baby- 
lonians. 

6. The Hebrews had a non-Assyrian calendar, and thus, 
probably, some knowledge of astronomy. 



DAMASCUS TO BEYROUT. 38I 

7. It is probable that Hebrew literature was preserved in 
records written on papyrus and leather, but the knowledge of 
writing seems to have been confined to the scribes, and it was 
not extensively employed for sepulchral or other monumental 
purposes. 

8. In civilization there is every reason to suppose the He- 
brews equaled their immediate neighbors, the Phoenicians, al- 
though perhaps not attaining to the condition of the Egyp- 
tians. 

9. They buried their dead in rocky tombs, without enbalm- 
ing, and there is no monumental evidence that they expected 
any resurrection of the mortal body so buried. 

10. Their art seems rather to have approached that of the 
early Babylonian age, their buildings being adorned with met- 
als and woods, while there is no evidence of the general culti- 
vation of sculpture among them. 

The value of these results, as Captain Conder points out, 
lies chiefly in their refutation of the destructive school. It 
should be noted that these conclusions are in perfect accord 
with the picture of Hebrew society which may be drawn from 
the Book of Kings. 



BEYROUT TO EPHESUS. 

We stopped all day (the 19th) at the Island of Cyprus, 
Port of Larnaca. It is a city of some fifteen thousand inhabi- 
tants, and since the occupation of the island by the English, 
has developed considerable trade. There are not many objects 
of importance in the place. That which gave it interest to us was 
the fact that it was one of the stations in the journey of Paul 
and Barnabas through the island from Salamis to Paphos. There 
is also an old Greek Church called the Church of St. Laz- 
arus, who died and was buried the second time here. Having 
seen his first tomb at Bethany, we were anxious to see this, so 
we went to the church, and down into the grotto where his 
remains are supposed to have been placed. This is simply a 
tradition of the Greek Church, and I find them in general sup- 
ported by less reason than Roman Catholic traditions, though 
not so absurd as the Moslem. In this same church we were 
shown a marble font for the immersion of infants, which they 
informed us had come down from the time of Paul if) 

We sailed Tuesday from Larnaca, and the whole of the 
night steamed along the shelter of the island. We could not 
make more than five " knots" (geographic miles) an hour, as 
we had what the sailors call a strong head wind. The waves 
were meeting us, and to attempt to run faster would have 
caused our steamer to cut directly through them, and thus 
her decks would have been constantly washed. As we had on 
board a large number of pilgrims from Greece and Russia, who 
were deck passengers, and also a large number of Europeans, 
who, though they had paid first-class fare, could get no state- 
rooms, we were obliged to travel slowly, as otherwise they 
would have been constantly deluged. We therefore came to 
Rhodes a day later than usual, and had so little time to stay 

that we could not land, but we nevertheless had a fine view of 
382 



BEYROUT TO EPHESUS. 



383 



the harbor and the old fortifications built by the Knights Tem- 
plar, and also the spot where once stood the famous colossus. 
From Rhodes we stopped no more till we reached Smyrna ; 
though we had a fine view of a number of the isles, like Crei- 
dus, Symi, famous lor its sponges and coral, and the expert- 
ness of its divers, both male and female, Cos and Samos, all 
of which were doubtless seen by the apostle Paul, and some of 
which are mentioned in the Scripture narrative of his travels. 
The one most interesting to us was Patmos, the scene of John's 
apocalyptic vision ; and though we were required to rise at 3 
A. M. , to catch only a glimpse of its tall form rising out of the sea, 
and but dimly outlined in the darkness, we felt well repaid for 
the trouble. The most beautiful, fertile, and yet most afflicted 
of these islands, is Chios. While not connected with Chris- 
tianity, we are told that Paul's ship lay in its harbor one 
night at anchor. It claims to be the birthplace of Homer, the 
Greek poet ; and on the summit of Mt. Epos, in the northern 
part of the island, is. an amphitheater, and a seat cut in the 
rock which bears the name of " Homer's School." Early in the 
fourteenth century the Turks took 
the island and pillaged it, with a 
massacre of many of the inhabi- 
tants. Some forty years later the 
Genoese captured it, and retained 
it for 250 years, when it was again 
recaptured, and treated with re- 
spect. It was largely left to itself, 
by furnishing a certain quantity of 
mastic to be used as chewing-gum 
by the Harem of the Sultan. In 
1822 the Greeks landed on the is- 
land, and forced some of the Chians 
to take part with them, which 
brought down a fearful vengeance 
upon the part of the enraged Turks. 
The archbishop and heads of the homer. 

clergy were hanged, and their bodies cast into the sea, the cities 
and villages burned to the ground, while more than 30,000 of 




384 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE, 

the Chians were massacred, and a greater number led into slav- 
ery. Its greatest calamity, however, occurred on April 3, 1881, 
when the island was terribly shaken with an earthquake. 
Great gulfs would open in the earth, and swallow up scores of 
persons at once ; churches, dwellings and mosques would fall 
in ruins, burying thousands beneath the debris. It was esti- 
mated that 6,000 perished, besides the wounded. The island 
of Samoshasthe honor of being the birthplace of Pythagoras, 
founder of the Pythagoreans, and head of the first great secret 
fraternity. 

Smyrna was a delightful surprise to us all. It is a real, 
live, Yankee city of about 200,000 inhabitants. It has one of 
the finest harbors in the world, perfectly land-locked. It has 
several railroads, street cars, gas works, and all other eviden- 
ces of prosperity. It was one of the cities containing the 
" seven churches " to which the Saviour sent letters, and. the 
site of the ancient church is still pointed out. It was also the 
home of Polycarp, the disciple of John, and his grave is shown, 
as also the stadium, where he was murdered. "The Ameri-^ 
can Board " has a large and flourishing mission station here, 
though of late years it has not done much in the way of con- 
versions. I refer, of course, to the A. B. F. C. M. Smyrna 
is the point where passengers take the cars for the ruins of 
Ephesus, and we were very anxious for fear we should not 
have an opportunity to do so ; but our agent obtained permis- 
sion of the captain to remain long enough, and placed a special 
train at our disposal. 

It was a great pleasure to us to hear the shriek of the loco- 
motive and enter a station, after being so long upon steamers. 
The station at Smyrna has a lunch-stand and other American- 
like appointments. It was our good fortune to get into the 
front, or coupe-car, which had a glass front, and we could see 
everything on either side. Passing out of the city, our atten- 
tion was called to anotJier of the seven birthplaces of Homer. 
The first station out was named Paradise, which made us feel 
quite odd. We were prepared for Smyrna and Ephesus in 
one day, but to add Paradise, was putting it rather strong. 
Our route lay through a beautiful and fertile plain, on which 



BEYROUT TO EPHESUS. 



385 



herds of cattle and camels were grazing, but upon which there 
were no farm-houses. The condition of society is such as to 
render it unsafe in Turkey for any one to dwell apart from the 
towns. How those poor wretches would rejoice to see the 
time when every man could dwell "beneath his own vine and 
fig-tree." It was only a short ride till we crossed a muddy, 
turgid stream, and were informed that it was the classic Cay- 
ster. A few moments later we saw on our right the frowning 
Castle of Ayosolouk, and our train halted at the foot of the 
hill on which it is built. 

The first object to attract our attention, after alighting from 
the cars, was a ruined aqueduct, built, as we were informed, 
out of materials taken from the ruined Temple of Diana. Per- 
ched upon the top of these ruined arches stood a number of 
storks, that seem to take pleasure in inhabiting the ruins of 
man's former greatness. 

The first place that we vis- 
ited was an old ruin that is 
called the Church of St. John, 
and is supposed to stand upon 
the site of the original 
"Church of Ephesus " men- 
tioned in Revelation. Near 
it is also the ruin of a Byzan- 
tine Church, the top of which 
has fallen in. From thence 
we passed to the late exca- 
vated ruin of the Temple of 
Diana. This goddess was 
the tutelary divinity of the 

city, and was known to the Ephesians as Artemis. Her image, 
said to have fallen from heaven, was preserved, with great rev- 
erence, in the midst of the temple. The first temple was 
built B. c. 500, and was burned to the ground a century and a 
half later, by an obscure individual named Eratostratus, in or- 
der to render his name immortal. This occurred the night upon 
which Alexander the Great was born, and the priests, in later 
times, used to assign as a reason why Artemis allowed the 




A STORK ON A RUIN. 



386 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



temple to be burned, was that she was presiding over the birth 
of Alexander, and had thought for nothing else. Alexander 
offered to rebuild the temple, if the city would allow his name 




to be placed upon it, which request was refused, under the 
complimentary declaration that it was "not proper for the gods 
to offer sacrifices to the gods." It is claimed the first temple 
was built out of the private treasury of Croesus, the Libyan 
king, who was heir to fabulous riches, which he afterwards 



BEYROUT TO EPHESUS. 



387 



greatly increased. Herodotus reports having seen one hun- 
dred and seventeen soUd gold ingots, six spans long, three 
broad, and one deep, belonging to that moharch, lodged in the 
temple at Delphos. It was this same king to whom Solon re- 




marked, on seeing his treasures, "No man can be counted 
happy till he is dead." Years after, Avhen a prisoner, and con- 
demned to death, he cried out, " Solon ! Solon ! " It attracted 
the attention of his captors, and led to his pardon by Cyrus, 
the Medo-Persian king, at whose court he passed the remainder 



388 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



of his days. At last, by foreign aid, the city succeeded in rebuild- 
ing the temple, on a far grander plan than the first. It 
took two hundred and twenty years to complete it, but when 
finished it ranked as one of the seven wonders of the world. 
Eugene Lawrence has given us a graphic pen-picture of this 
stupendous building, as Paul saw it: " All Asia had united in 
lavishing its wealth on the marvelous temple ; the ladies of 
Ephesus had given their jewels to restore its splendors, and 
each of its columns of precious stone or marble was the gift 
of a king. Amidst its flowery groves, 
fed by perpetual springs, the fair fabric 
arose, the largest and most costly work 
of the ancient architects. Its colonnade 
was more than four hundred feet long 
and two hundred wide, and each Ionic 
column was sixty feet high. Statues 
^p-^ by Praxiteles, pictures by Apelles, 
is^'^, ^^(^ countless works of art embellished 
its labyrinth of halls. In the interior, 
a rude wooden statue of Diana, vener- 
able in its simplicity, and which was be- 
lieved to have fallen from the skies, was 
hidden amidst a blaze of precious stones. 
A train of effeminate priests and virgin 
priestesses lived within the sacred pre- 
cincts, swept in gorgeous procession 
through the noble porticoes, and cele- 
brated the worship of the guardian deity 
of Ephesus." This temple stood about 
DIANA OF THE EPHEsiANs. half 3. mllc uorthcast of the city, as has 
recently been demonstrated by Mr. Wood, whose account of the 
discovery is quite interesting. He began his excavations without 
means, except such as he furnished. He first proceeded to clear 
out the Great Theater, which was the scene of the uproar recorded 
in Acts of Apostles. In this he found an inscription which 
led to the discovery of Diana's Temple. Itwas a statement of the 
manner in which certain precious things belonging to the temple 




BEYROUT TO EPHESUS. 389 

should be carried through the city on important occasions. 
The inscription stated that they were to be received at the 
Magnesian Gate, and after passing through the city, they 
should depart through the Coressian Gate, on the return to the 
Temple. After locating these gates, and then following the 
Sacred Way leading from the Magnesian Gate to a spot where 
a road from the Coressian Gate would probably cross it, he 
sunk a shaft, and came upon the angle of the penbolos, and 
upon the wall was an inscription which stated that Augustus 
had repaired the peribolos wall of the Temple of Diana b. c. 
6. He now began to make other excavations, and found the 
exact lines of the foundation walls, together with some of the 
drums of the columns still in position. Its enormous size can 
hardly be realized unless by comparison, being nearly four 
times as large as the Parthenon at Athens, and about double 
that of the Great Temple at Baalbec. About 253 a. d. it was 
destroyed by the Goths, who sacked the city. 

From the ruins of this Temple we proceeded to the Stadium, 
passing on our left the graves of the seven sleepers, who out- 
did Rip Van. Winkle by taking a two-century nap. They fled 
from persecution under Diocletian, but when they returned the 
whole city had become Christian. The Stadium lies on the 
north side of Mt. Prion, and one side was formed by cutting 
terraces in the rocky hillside. Though in ruins, they are 
enough to give us a clear outline of the magnificent structure 
that was able to contain 76,000 persons at one time. The 
Theater, made immortal by the incident in Paul's life, recorded 
in Acts xix. 29, was next in size to the Stadium, and was esti- 
mated to hold 60,000 persons. Its location was at the western 
base of Mt Prion, and faced the sea and harbor. The Great 
Gymnasium, however, was the largest, being 700 by 900 feet. 
Between the Theater and Gymnasium is a valley, separating 
the southern slope of Prion from the rocky face of Mt. Cores- 
sus, on the south. In this was the Agora Civilis, where stood 
the statues of great Ephesians. Here the Ionian laws were 
exhibited, and most probably the colloquy between Justin 
Martyr and the Jew, Tryphon, took place. Here Antony 
was one day presiding, and leaped from his place while a great 



39^ AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

orator was speaking, to attend upon Cleopatra, who was pass- 
ing in her litter. Passing out of the old wall at the Magnesian 
Gate, we made our way back to the station, through a little 
lane fenced on both sides with marble walls, from which 
would often protrude a hand or foot beautifully carved, which 
had once adorned some of the statues in the Agora. 

All the return journey to Smyrna our mind was largely oc- 
cupied with its Christian history. The home of Aquila and 
Priscilla, who here taught the Alexandrian Apollos "the 
way of the Lord more perfectly ;" the home of those elders 
whom Paul called to P/Iiletus, and bade a final farewell in lan- 
guage of almost unrivalled eloquence ; the home of Timothy, 
Alexander the coppersmith, and the sons of Sceva ; the burial- 
place of St. John the Evangelist, Luke, and the mother of our 
Lord. There is no greater Christian center, aside from Jeru- 
salem, than Ephesus. 

One of the most pleasant features of our visit to Smyrna 
was our reception by the little band of disciples there. We 
had not yet gone ashore when some intelligent, well-dressed 
young gentlemen came on board, and inquired for us. They 
had our names on a slip of paper, and also bore a letter of in- 
troduction from Bro. G. N. Shishmanian, of' Constantinople, 
who had recently visited them, and baptized nine persons. 
It was a great pleasure to us, in this far-away land of Lslam, 
to be welcomed in good, brotherly style by those whom 
we could feel were brethren in Christ. We were immediately 
taken possession of, and shown as much of the city as could 
be seen that evening, after which we were taken to a large 
building called "Smyrna Rest," and tea and coffee ordered for 
the party, consisting of Bros. Moore, Toof and wife, myself, 
and four or five of the Smyrna brethren. Bro. Errett declined 
to go ashore, as it was nearly sundown when we started. The 
place was a religious and temperance coffee-house for sailors. 
It was neat and clean, and the room was adorned with Greek, 
Arabic and English versions of such mottoes as, " Prepare to 
meet thy God," " Choose ye this day whom ye will serve," 
" Let everything that hath breath, praise the Lord," etc. 

While sitting at the table, an organ began to play one of 



BEYROUT TO EPHESUS. 39 1 

the sweet hymns of the Moody and Sankey collection, and a 
number of male voices sang it in clear tones. I believe the 
hymn was "Hold the fort." Some of us went inside the room 
where the meeting was in progress, and found an American 
sailor telling his experience. It was the old story of how the 
Lord had come to him in his sins, and what he had done for 
him. His conversion occurred in the Bowery, New York City. 
It .was evidently spoken from an honest heart, and was deeply 
sincere, but it was the old stereotyped " experience." On go- 
ing back to our table, we thought we would see how our 
Smyrna brethren took to such preaching. So we asked them a 
great many questions. Two of the brethren could talk Eng- 
lish tolerably well, and translated for us. In reply to our 
questions as to what they thought of it, one young brother, 
only eighteen years of age, immediately spoke up: "Oh, dey 
are good people, but dey don't understand de gospel." Why? 
"Because dey only tell what Jesus do for dem. Dey never 
say what dey do for Jesus. Dese people speak from deir stom. 
achy we speak from de book.'" A new way of contrasting the 
word 2ind Ywxradin feelings ! " Jesus speaks very plain to us." 
A Greek gentleman came in during the conversation, and sat 
down by us. He greeted them familiarly, and one of us asked 
if he, too, was a brother. " No, no. He love Jesus, but he 
is outside de walls." He laughed, and said it was because he 
had never been baptized — and they assented to it ; but he re- 
plied that he was baptized when a babe, and his father had so 
told him. " Oh, yes," replied the young man, "your faith is 
in your father ; when he die, your faith go away. If your faith 
be in Jesus, he never die." 

The conversation is too long for this letter, but I have 
quoted enough to convince the soundest of my readers that 
our church in Smyrna is sound, and that Bro. Shishmanian is 
not compromising the gospel in Turkey. 

Bro. Errett did not visit Ephesus the next day, preferring 
to see something more of the members of the church. He 
visited them all at their homes, which he found to be cleanly 
kept, without exception, which is contrary to the almost uni- 
versal custom in Turkey. 



392 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

They are exceedingly anxious for a preacher who can carry 
on the work with more vigor, as their venerable pastor, though 
greatly beloved, is too feeble for the work, being now over 
seventy years of age. They are also in great need of a house 
in which to meet. They formerly had a hall rented, but have 
had it taken a way from them by the sectarian bigotry of a 
large American missionary society. They have, therefore, no 
place in which to meet but the pastor's house, and there they 
are not allowed to make a noise that will disturb their neigh- 
bors, who are Greeks. They are therefore compelled to meet 
with closed doors and windows, and not sing aloud, if they sing 
at all. So they are worshiping at great disadvantages, but 
are nevertheless cheerful and hopeful. They feel and say that 
"Jesus will provide them a house when it pleases him." Not- 
withstanding this unpleasant state of affairs,, they are growing 
in numbers and influence. Very recently they have had a 
number of good accessions. The above-mentioned society 
sent to some of the new disciples to learn why they did not 
come in with them. They said to them, " If you want money,- 
we have it. If you want work, we can get it for you." Their 
reply was, " We are not seeking either money or work. We 
are seeking salvation. 

On our return from Ephesus, we found nearly the whole 
church on board waiting to see us. It was a sight to the whole 
ship to see the greeting they gave us. They would say, ' ' This 
is the great day with us. We shall never have another day 
like this till we get to heaven." They stayed with us till the 
last warning whistle of the steamer sounded, and then de- 
parted. When our steamer turned round and sailed out past 
the custom-house, they had all gathered where they could get 
one more look, and their handkerchiefs were waving a last good- 
bye. We all gathered in a crowd, and responded with like 
signals — and even other. passengers helped us; and thus passed 
away from each other two bodies of people who were not 
bound to each other by a single tie of blood, country, or in- 
terest, yet an acquaintance of a few hours served to develop 
the warmest feelings for each other, becaused they were united 



BEYROUT TO EPHESUS. 393 

by one common ransom, heirs of one common inheritance, and 
bound for one common destination. 

To my dying day I shall carry with me the inspiration re- 
ceived by my visit to Smyrna, and shall ever labor and pray 
that the work in this great city may grow, and become an 
avenue through which Asia may again be filled with the light 
she once enjoyed, and of which she is now bereft. 

I think it would possibly be a wise investment upon the part 
of the F. C. M. S. to charter a small steamer, and take over to 
Smyrna the slight remainder of our people who are opposed to 
foreign missions. If they all came back as determined for mis- 
sionary work as our little band, the investment would pay in a 
year's time. If any obdurate ones still remained, it might be 
a mercy to the rest of the world to drop them quietly out of 
the stern of the vessel on the return voyage. In either event, 
there would be no more croakings against the glorious work. 



SMYRNA TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 

Leaving Smyrna Saturday night, we found ourselves at sun- 
rise about midway between the northern part of the island of 
Mytilene on our left, and Assos on the right. After taking 
breakfast, we came in view of Alexandria Troas — the Troas of 
the Bible — where Paul saw in a vision "a man of Macedonia," 
which country lay immediately west of Troas. It was on his 
return from Greece that he stopped here seven days. While 
preaching, he restored to life Eutychus, who had fallen from 
an upper window and broken his neck. Paul walked from 
Troas to Assos over the mountains — the route of whom we 
could largely trace from the vessel. It was built by Alexander, 
and hence bears his name. The ruins are very extensive, con- 
sisting of theaters, baths, temples and arcades, the walls of the 
city being six miles in circumference. It is now called by the 
Turks Eski Stamboul, and lies not more than five miles east of 
the south point of Tenedos, famous in classic history as the 
island to which the Greeks retired after making the Trojan 
horse, and from whence they sailed to the destruction of Troy. 
Our steamer passed between Troas and Tenedos, and gave us 
a fine view of both. After passing Tenedos, we could see on 
our left Imbros, over whose hills Homer represents Neptune as 
seeing the Greek fleet from his throne on the peaks of 
Samothrace. This is also the direct route of Paul on his voy- 
age to Neapolis. To the right lay the plain in which Troy was 
situated, and still beyond. Mount Ida, the place from which 
Homer represents Jove as viewing the immortal battlefield. To 
the north lies the Hellespont, into which our steamer enters ; 
and as we look backward, we have a good view of ancient Troy 
and the conical hill that rises out of the Trojan plain, to mark 
the spot where Agamemnon, Achilles, Nestor, Menelaus and 
Paris wrought out their achievements, that charm the readers 

394 



SMYRNA TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 



595 



of "the matchless poem." A few miles further brought us to 
Abvdos, where Leander swam the Hellespont to feast upon the 




charms of his beloved Hero, which event has been celebrated 
in verse by Byron : 



396 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE, 

" If, in the month of dark December, 

Leander, who was nightly wont 
(What maid will not the tale remember ?) 

To cross thy stream, broad Hellespont." 

We were now sailing along the course of Jason and his 
Argonauts, in their ship made of pines from Mount Pelion, 
and masts from Dodona, in search of the Golden Fleece. Our 
illustration represents them passing the isle of the sirens, "who 
sat in a mead close to the sea, and with their melodious voices 
so charmed those who were sailing by, that they forgot home 
and everything relating to it, and abode there till their bones 
lay whitening upon the strand." Odysseus, when he came to 
the island, prevented himself from being led astray by putting 
wax in his ears and binding himself to the mast, enjoining his 
crew not to unloose him, even if he desire it. Jason has 
Orpheus with him, who can make sweeter music in the boat 
than the sirens on shore. Happy is the Christian on life's 
troubled sea, that has sweeter music at home than can be found 
in the siren song of temptation. 

Monday, just as the sun was rising, we came in sight of 
Constantinople. The first objects to attract attention were the 
Seven Towers, comprising part of the old wall built by Con- 
stantine. From there north to Seraglio Point is about four 
miles, and presents a continual succession of terraced roofs, 
minarets and domes. "The steamer ghdes on, sweeps rapidly 
round Seraglio Point, and drops anchor in the Golden Horn. 
The view here is grander still, and more intensely interesting. 
On the south, rise in succession from the still waters of the 
inlet, the seven low hills of old Byzantium, crowned with 
domes, and tapering minarets and buttresses, with fantastic 
houses and shattered walls." — Murray. 

As soon as we were at anchor, a number of gentlemen 
came aboard, and among them I recognized Bro. Shishmanian, 
our missionary at Constantinople, and Bro. Kevorkian, of Mar- 
sivan ; they were accompanied by a number of the brethren, 
who gave us a warm greeting. 

Although we spent a week in the city, I felt, on leaving it, 
that we had only begun to see it. The great sights of Con- 



SMYRNA TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 399 

stantinople are the bazaars, mosques (of which there are 
hundreds), tombs, seragHo, and the offices of the Sublime 
Porte. One of the first places every traveler visits, is the 
Seraglio. This was built upon thp site of ancient Byzantium, 
by Mohammed II. It is almost a triangle, each side of which 
will measure one mile. li. is enclosed by a high wall, and filled 
with mosques, palaces, kiosks, gardens and groves, very 
irregularly, but in such a manner as to create a very pleasing 
impression. The outer court is open to the public, and is 
entered through the Sublime Porte. This is called, in Arabic, 
Badi Humaiooin, and means. The Imperial Gate. It is a high, 
semi-circular arch, with a niche on either side, and bears an 
inscription in Arabic. It looks very much like some of the 
arches over the entrances to cemeteries in our country ; yet it 
is said that it takes fifty porters to attend it. It is this ^ate 
that has given name to the Turkish government. There are 
nine large kitchens for the various divisions of the harem, from 
the Sultan down. They are not used so much now as formerly, 
but in their palmy days did good service. The purveyors then 
were expected to furnish 200 sheep, lOO lambs, 10 calves, 200 
hens, 400 pullets, 200 pigeons, and 50 green geese each day, 
in addition to the regular daily stipend of 125 beeves. The 
Seraglio contains the Imperial Mint, Armory, Treasury, and 
Museum of Antiquities. There is also the private library of 
the Sultan, in the Kiosk of Murad, built in imitation of one in 
Bagdad. 

Next in importance comes the Mosque of St. Sophia, which 
stands near the Sublime Porte. It was originally a church, and 
was rebuilt by Justinian, a. d, 531, who employed, during the 
seven years of its building, 100 architects, 100 master masons, 
and 10,000 fellow craftsmen. These were all superintended by 
the emperor, who, in turn, claimed to be superintended by an 
angel from heaven. The angel was either not a good architect, 
or some one failed to obey orders, for some years later the 
eastern dome fell in, but was restored in greater splendor. It 
is a Greek cross, about 300 by 250 feet in dimensions, sur- 
mounted by a dome of 180 feet. Attached to the ceiling are 
thousands of cords, which come within six feet of the floor. 



400 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

and support all kinds of lamps and ornaments, such as ostrich 
eggs, globes, etc. It is supported by nearly 200 pillars, oi 
every variety of stone and every color. They have been gath- 
ered from every quarter of the globe, and the temples of an- 
tiquity were the quarries. Eight are from the Temple of the 
Sun at Baalbec, eight from the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, 
while the others have been taken from Egypt, Athens, Troas, 
Delos, and various other places. The principal door was com- 
posed of planks from Noah' s Ark, while the four trumpets 
above it were the identical ones that blew down the walls of 
Jericho ! 

The Mosque of Suleiman was modeled after St. Sophia, but 
intended to surpass it, which it undeniably does. It has four 
minarets, two quite high, and having three galleries for 
prayer-criers ; the others not so high, and having two galleries. 
The Mosque of Sultan Ahmed is in the Hippodrome, and is 
remarkable for being the only mosque in the Turkish Empire 
that has six minarets. When it was built the great Mosque of 
Mecca had only six, but to that another has been added, that 
it "may excel all others. In consequence of its convenient 
location, the Mosque of Sultan Ahmed has been made the 
center of all court processions and religious ceremonies. Here 
the Sultan repairs on the great Bairam feasts, and also to 
celebrate the birth of the Prophet. There are 250 mosques, 
and over 300 inesjids, or chapels, in Constantinople. 

Adjoining this mosque, is the Hippodrome, 900 by 450 
feet, built originally after the circus at Rome. It was sur- 
rounded by a double row of columns, and ornamented with a 
wealth of bronze and marble statuary. It was in this circus 
that the four famous bronze horses of Lysippus formerly stood, 
which now adorn the front of St. Mark's Church, in Venice. 
There still stands the Obelisk of Theodosius. It was brought 
from Heliopolis, in Egypt, and is a shaft about fifty feet high. 
The Serpentine Column, a pillar composed of three bronze ser- 
pents wrought together, the three heads of which once supported 
the golden tripod in the Delphic Temple, and is a half century 
older than our era. When Mohammed II. entered Constanti- 
nople, he shattered the under jaw of one of the serpents with 










PRAYEK-CRIERS. 



Page 401. 



SMYRNA TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 403 

his battle-ax, since which time the heads have entirely disap- 
peared. The Burnt Column, so named from its never having 
been burned, but greatly blackened by the repeated burning of 
everything else around it, in the various conflagrations that 
have swept over the city, stands in Adrianople street. It is 
made of porphyry, and is about one hundred feet high. It 
was originally surmounted by either a statue of Apollo or Con- 
stantine — which, is uncertain. Near the Burnt Column is the 
Cistern of Constantine, or the thousand and one pillars. It is 
a great subterranean chamber, supported by about six hundred 
pillars, and in which were a number of people living, having 
various little stands, with articles for sale to the tourist. It is 
a damp, dirty, dismal place, of which we were glad enough to 
get out. Just west of the Hippodrome is the Museum of An- 
cient Costumes, in which can be seen hundreds of wooden ef- 
figies clothed in the apparel of the Janissaries, that strange 
body of soldiers which had its origin in Christian prisoners 
forced to fight for Mohammedanism, but into which at length 
Turks were admitted, until it became the controlling power in 
the empire, often going to the length of deposing Sultans. At 
last, however, it met its master in Mahmoud II., who, in 1826, 
displayed the flag of the Prophet, and aroused the fanaticism of 
the people till they met the Janissaries in battle, and overthrew 
them, with a loss of 8,000 of their number. This they followed 
by a wholesale butchery and banishment, till the powerful body 
was no more. There is a commander in his uniform, and several 
hundred privates, together with their kettles, ladles, etc. While 
the figures are very poor, and the costumes grotesque, it is doubt- 
less a fair representation of the Janissaries, and is well worth 
a visit. 

There are two hundred khans in Constantinople, and they 
are a sort of camping hotel. There are apartments, some of 
which are kept neat and clean, and carpeted, that any one can 
rent, and occupy for living or trading purposes. They present 
a very strange medley of people of every color, tongue, 
country, condition and religion. The Bazaars of Constanti- 
nople consist of miles of shops, where everything can be had, 
from a Cashmere shawl to a bottle of perfume. They have lost 



404 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

much of their patronage, however, since the introduction of 
European stores, and the wealthy and aristocratic Turks are 
now rarely seen in one. 

There are more dogs in Constantinople to the square foot 
than any other ten cities in the world. In front of one double 
building I counted foiifteen, and in the same block forty-two 
lazy, ugly, sore, lean, fox-colored flea-centers that passed for 
dogs, but looking as little like our well-fed dogs as a coyote 
looks like a horse. The only healthy thing about them is their 
hozvl ; they all have that cowed look that indicates a long, fruit- 
less chase in front of a tin can. They belong to nobody in par- 
ticular, but live in little communities, which they defend with a 
" know-nothing" zeal against the intrusions of foreign curs. 

One of the most delightful days at Constantinople was the 
day we spent on the Bosphorus. This is a large salt-water 
river, averaging perhaps two miles in width, running between 
the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmora. I say betzueen, for it 
flows sometimes in one direction, and again the opposite, ac- 
cording to the wind. It also, like society, has upper and 
under currents, which often flow in opposite directions. There 
are seven promontories on the European side, and correspond- 
ing depressions on the other, and, viceversa. A vessel will sud- 
denly disappear in these turnings ; and it was no doubt this 
fact that led the ancients, in the time of the Argonauts, to 
suppose the rocks opened to receive a ship, and then closed 
again, for that is precisely the effect to one unacquainted with 
its winding course. As we sailed up the stream, the first place 
on our left was Dolma-Batche," which means Bean Patch, and 
was formerly used for garden purposes, but is now the seat of 
the Sultan's palace, the first one built of stone. In this palace, 
May 30, 1876, Sultan Abdul Aziz was dethroned. They, how- 
ever, did not leave him entirely comfortless, but mercifully al- 
lowed him to keep fifty-two boatloads oi ivives from his harem. 
Adjoining Dolma-Batche is the summer palace of Beshiktash, 
the favorite palace of the Ottoman Sultans. It is a paradisai- 
cal bower of wood and blossom in the spring-time, and is en- 
closed by high walls, which shut out the view from all except 
the favored ones that arc permitted to enter. Here the Vene- 



SMYRNA TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 40/ 

tians, under the Doge Dandolo, landed and beseiged the city. 
Here also Mohammed II. landed his transports and ships, and 
conveyed them across the land to the upper end of the Golden 
Horn, and astonished the besieged, who had protected the 
mouth of their harbor by a double chain, by appearing in their 
rear. A little beyond Beshiktash is the palace of Cheragan, 
where Sultan Abdul Aziz is said to have ended his life by 
opening an artery, but was really assassinated by conspirators 
in that manner. A mile or so above, we came to a hand- 
some pale-green palace, and just above it one painted yellow, 
with Oriental colonnades. At Kouron Schechme is shown the 
spot where Medea landed and planted a laurel tree, on the re- 
turn of the Argonautic expedition. Here Simeon the Stylite 
stood on his pillar, and was adored by the people. He made 
the pillar eighteen feet at first, but it was several times increased 
in height, till it stood one hundred and eight feet high. After 
Simeon came Daniel, the Stylite, who performed the fool-feat 
of standing there twenty-eight years. 

At Bebek is a large English and American colony, which 
has been collected in the vicinity of Robert College, an Ameri- 
can institution begun twenty-five years since, and which now 
has a fine corps of professors and some 200 pupils. Just 
above and at the narrowest part of the Bosphorus, are located 
the Castles of Europe and Asia, on the respective sides 
whose names they bear. Mohammed I. had built the Castle 
of Asia, and Mohammed II., in 145 1, built the Castle of 
Europe, two years previous to the capture of Constantinople 
by the Turks. He spent the previous winter in burning lime, 
gathering wood from Nicomedia, and drawing the plans, which 
were to be in shape like the Arabic word Mohammed ; and 
when spring arrived, he completed the building in three 
months. With immense guns on these castles, he could ex- 
act toll from every passing vessel. This was remonstrated 
against by the Emperor, until Mohammed threatened to flay 
alive the next embassador sent to him, after which negotiations 
ceased. The walls of this castle now enclose the rock-cut 
throne upon which Darius, the Persian king, sat and watched 
his army march into Europe from Asia, across the celebrated 



408 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

bridge built for that purpose by Mandrokles, of Samos. Mo- 
hammed's next move was upon the city. In the spring of 1453, 
a large detachment of Turks crossed the Bosphorus and de- 
stroyed the villages and towns in the vicinity of Constantinople. 
After destroying everything without the walls, the siege of the 
city began. The Turk had by this time collected an army of 
more than a quarter million men, while the Emperor had only 
about ten thousand, though counting all the women and non 
combatants, there were in the neighborhood of 100,000 within 
the walls. Though the siege was pressed with great vigor, the 
besieged held their own, while compelled to defend fifteen 
miles of wall with their .slight force. The entrance to the 
Golden Horn was obstructed by a double chain, behind which 
was a well-manned fleet of thirty vessels. At last the wily 
Turk landed some of his vessels on the Bosphorus above 
the city, and transporting them across land, launched them at 
the head of the harbor. This enabled him to bring his cannon 
to bear upon the weakest part of the walls. This, Gibbon 
tells us, was the first time in human warfare that cannon, cata- 
pult and battering-ram were all used together. The chief de- 
pendence of the Emperor was the general of the Genoese, and 
when he was at last borne from the field, the enraged Otto- 
mans poured through the breaches they had made in the walls, 
and the sack and pillage of the city began. The infidel was 
master over the last remnant of the Roman Empire. The 
Golden Crescent displaced the Cross on the summit of St. 
Sophia, henceforth no longer a Christian church. 

Our last stopping-place on the European shore was Buyuk 
Dere. It is a great summer resort of the wealthy Constanti- 
noplitans, and contains the palace of the Russian Embassy. 
We now crossed to the Asiatic side at Anadouh, near which 
is the Giant's Mountain, 600 feet, and the highest on the 
Bosphorus. On this is shown the tomb of Joshua. They tell 
you that Joshua's great toe was fo7'ty feet long That being 
true, I was a little puzzled to know how the little mountain 
could hold his grave, for if there be any truth in comparative 
anatomy, a man with a great toe forty feet long, might have 
sat upon the summit of that hill and washed his feet in the 



SMYRNA TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 



409 



Bosphorus, or the Black Sea, for that matter. Bey-Kos is a 
large open bay, that has been famous for nautical engagements 
from the days of the Argonauts to the present time As we 
passed it, there were lying at anchor several British men-of-war. 




Lower down are the Sweet Waters of Asia, where the harem 
beauties pass the summer-time. On the Asiatic side, opposite 
Constantinople, is Skutari, the largest of its suburbs But we 
must get ready for the morning boat to Athens. 




ATHENS AND GREECE. 



Sunday a. m., May ist, we cast anchor in the harbor at 
Piraeus, the port of Athens. It was with much emotion that 
we set foot for the first time upon Grecian soil. It had always 
stood for liberty in our boyish mind, and its history had been 
an especial study. With its two great races, Dorians and 
lonians, inhabiting its four great divisions of Macedonia, Epi- 
rus, Hellas and Peloponnesus, we were quite familiar. The 
real history of the country goes back three quarters of a mil- 
lennium before Christ, though its legendary and fabulous his- 
tory reaches much farther into antiquity. In its palmy days, 
extending from 'J^Q to 146 b. c. , it occupied a much larger ter- 
ritory than now, it being at present less than 20,000 square 
miles in extent, and having less than one and a half millions pop- 
ulation. The present government is a constitutional mon- 
archy, the head of which is George I. The king is assisted by 
a Chamber of Deputies, similar to a parliament. The right of 
suffrage begins at twenty-five years of age, and at thirty a cit- 
izen is eligible for election. There is nothing of especial inter- 



ATHENS AND GREECE. 



41 T 



est at the Piraeus, so, as soon as possible, we took carriages 
for Athens, six miles inland. The road is a fine turnpike, over- 




arched a large part of the way with Eucalyptus trees. Al- 
though a railroad has been in operation for nearly twenty years, 
most persons prefer the macadamized road. 



412 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

Athens is a city of 100,000 inhabitants, and one of the most 
neat and clean places in Southern Europe. Its hotels and res- 
taurants are good, its residences are tidy, streets splendid and 
well-kept, though somewhat narrow. It is beginning to re- 
vive as a literary center, there being a number of schools aud 
colleges, well patronized by pupils from all parts of Europe. 
Its chief interest, however, is in its monuments of antiquity, 
some of which we shall try to describe. 

While the remains of ancient Rome are grander, those of 
Babylon more mysterious, those of Persepolis more romantic, 
none can compare with those of Athens for beauty and chas- 
tity in art. The beginning of Athenian ornament dates back- 
to the tyrants, Pisistratides, who were genuine lovers of art. 
They laid the foundations of the Olympian Temple, and began 
the construction of the Theater of Dionysius, on the side of 
the Acropolis, where before had stood the old wooden theater. 
But the real beginning of the new era of adornment was after 
the city had been destroyed by Xerxes Under Themistocles, 
Crinon and Pericles, the city made astonishing strides. The 
latter used the city revenues in public improvement, and in his 
time were built the Parthenon, the Propylsea, the Erechtheum, 
the Odeum, and the Lyceum. Max Mijller well says: " Had 
Pericles not made an appropriate use of this revenue, the 
world would have been robbed of the finest of its artistic 
models." The Acropolis is a hill, rising to the height of 300 
feet above the city, and upon its summit and sides are situated 
most of the ancient remains. The hill is about two miles in 
circumference, at the base, and a little more than half that 
around the walls on the summit. It contains about, as nearly 
as I could estimate, eighty acres of land upon its summit, which 
was once the great altar to the Grecian gods, and was filled 
with their temples and statues. It was to this shrine-covered 
hill, doubtless, that Paul pointed when referring to the Athen- 
ian gods in his speech on Mars' Hill, which is only separated 
from the Acropolis by a stone's-throw. 

At the southeast corner of the hill (northeast in the illus- 
tration) is located the Theatre of Dionysius. It was built b. 
c. 500, and has tiers of seats cut into the rocky hillside in a 



ATHENS AND GREECE. 



415 



semicircle. The stage and orchestra were of marble, and were 
a fit place upon which to represent the great plays of Eurip- 
ides, yEschylus, Aristophanes and Sophocles. A gigantic 
statue of Bacchus adorned the portico, which now stands in 




MINERVA. 

the British Museum. There are still a number of handsome 
seats, made of Pentelic marble, inscribed with the owners' 
names. 

At the southwestern base of the hill is the Odeum of Re- 



4l6 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

gilla, built A. D. i6o, by Herodes Atticus, in. memory of his 
dead wife, Regiila. It was, in plan^ similar to the Theater of 
Dionysius, and could accommodate 6, ooo persons. 

The Propylaea was the western entrance to the Acropolis, and 
is shown in the illustration. It was a gateway of Doric architec- 
ture, supported by six fluted columns. They still stand, being 
five feet in diameter and thirty feet high, and for beauty rival 
anything on the Acropolis. The Propylaea was approached by 
a flight of marble steps, seventy feet wide. On the right of the 
stairway was the Temple of Wingless Victory. This was 
probably built before the time of Pericles, and though destroyed 
by the Turks, 1687, has been rebuilt. Just in the rear of the 
Propylaea stood the celebrated bronze statue of Minerva, one of 
the most celebrated of the works of Phidias. It was sixty feet 
high, towering above the Parthenon, and her glittering helmet 
and spear could be seen forty miles at sea. To the right and 
in the rear, stands the Parthenon, crowning the hill summit, 
itself the crowning work of Grecian art Built 436 b. c , its 
ruins are to-day the wonder of the world. The walls of the 
main- temple are surrounded by forty-eight Doric pillars of 
white marble, over six feet in diameter and thirty-four feet 
high. It is said that there is not a perfectly straight line in all 
its proportions, and, after much searching, we failed to find 
any. This must have cost the architect great labor, and is 
doubtless one of the chief causes of its marvelous beauty, and 
which has justly entitled it to be called "the finest edifice on 
the finest site in the world, hallowed by the noblest recollec- 
tions that can stimulate the human heart." In the center of 
this building stood the colossal statue of Minerva, covered with 
ivory and gold, which, according to Michaelis, was thirty-nine 
feet high. The site of the pedestal is still marked upon the 
floor in Peiraic stone. The carved golden drapery was so ar- 
ranged that it could be removed from the statue, and it is re- 
ported that the sculptor, Phidias, vindicated his honesty, when 
accused of appropriating part of the gold by having it removed 
and weighed. 

The great thought that forces itself upon the traveler is the 
number of illustrious men that have trod its pavements. Socrates 



ATHENS AND GREECE. 



419 



was in his prime when the Parthenon was finished. Plato, his 
marvelous pupil, doubtless taught in its sacred precincts, and 
transmitted to his pupil Aristotle, many of the truths that were 
afterwards incorporated into the Peripatetic philosophy. It 
was doubtless from here that Aristotle was summoned by Philip 
to take charge of the training of Alexander, in the following 
language: " Be it known unto you that I have a son, and that 
I am thankful to the gods, not so much for his birth as that he 
was born in your time ; for, if you will but take the charge of 
his education, I assure myself that he will become worthy of 
his father and of his future kingdom." Through these halls 
old Diogenes must often have wandered with his day-light lan- 
tern, looking for an honest man, which he might have often found 
had he not been so cynical. But time would fail us to speak 
of Demosthenes and Herodotus, Phocion and Pindar, Pythag- 
oras and Praxiteles, Xenophon and Zeuxis. 




DIOGENES. 



Standing on the marble steps of the Parthenon, a marvelous 
sight presents itself to view. The port of Piraeus lies to the left, 
with its road leading to Athens, trodden in ages past by the feet 
of poets, patriots, philosophers and warriors. To the west is the 



420 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



Pnyx, the popular place of assembly of the ancient citizens, to 
settle their great popular controversies. On its summit is the 
Bema, from whence the orators thundered their harangues to 
the excited populace — where Demosthenes, Pericles, and 

others, held their magic sway. Just 
to the left of the Bema is a small 
cavern cut into the solid rock, called 
the Prison of Socrates, believed to be 
the place of confinement of that great 
Athenian, and where he drank the 
poisoned cup. Immediately in front 
is the Areopagus. It is sometimes 
called Mars' Hill, because here that 
god is said to have been tried for 
the murder of Neptune's son. Here 
Socrates was tried for theism ; but 
that which gives it world-wide re- 
nown, is the fact that upon its sum- 
mit Paul stood and made his ever-, 
memorable speech, that pierced 
with mortal wounds the great sys- 
tem of idolatr)^ on the Acropolis. 
On Sunday afternoon we held service upon its summit. A 
sermon was delivered b)^ Dr Robinson, of Rochester, N. Y., 
who chose Paul's speech, the only appropriate theme in the Bible 
for such a sermon ; and after the service public announcement 
was made to the congregation of the death of Ray Palmer, after 
which we sang the grand Christian hymn that has made his name 
so familiar to all American Christians. 

The Court of the Areopagus was situated upon the eastern 
end of the hill. The judges were chosen from the purest citi- 
zens, whose term of office was for life, and formed the high- 
est tribunal of the Athenians. Pausanias tells us that the 
cases were tried by night. " that the judges might not look on 
the speakers, but on what was spoken." It is approached 
from the Agora — the Market-Place where Paul disputed— by a 
flight of sixteen steps cut into the solid rock. The Agora was 
filled with growing wheat when we were there. 




DEMOSTHENES. 



ATHENS AND GREECE. 



423 



At the northeastern corner of the Areopagus is a wide chasm 
in the rocks leading inward. At the bottom is a deep pit, 
out of which issued muddy water. This was the Cave of the 
Furies, so called because no one guilty of crime could enter 





MARS HILL. 



without being deprived of reason and rendered furious. It 
would not be a bad plan if our American court houses could 
find out and apply this secret in modern architecture. It would 
certainly shorten the "vexatious delays of the law" in crim- 
inal trials. 

East of the Acropolis, and on the banks of the classic His- 
sus, stand fifteen tall Corinthian pillars, all that remain of the 
one hundred and twenty that formed the peristyle around the 
Temple of Jupiter Olympius. Those that remain are seven feet 
in diam.eter and sixty feet high. It was begun b. c. 359, but 
not finished till the time of Hadrian, A. d. 130. It was 550 
feet long and 173 wide. It was used by the Athenians of the 
middle ages as a marble quarry, and has almost disappeared. 
Still further east and across the Ilissus, is the Panathenaic 
Stadium, constructed by Lycurgus in the place adapted for it 
by nature, but which required some excavation. It would 
seat 50,000 persons, and was so large that Hadrian hunted 
1,000 wild beasts within it. 



424 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



One of the most delightful days spent in Greece was the 
excursion to Corinth. Owing to the system of brigandage 
which was only recently abolished, this was not often taken by 
the ordinary traveler; but the completion of the railroad to 
Corinth has rendered it quite safe and practicable. The first 

place of importance after 
leaving Athens, is Eleu- 
sis, the great center of 
the worship of Ceres and 
Proserpine. This was one 
of Greece's most ancient 
cities, though at present 
only a straggling village 
of a few hundred Albani- 
ans. It was the birth- 
place of yEschylus, . The 
ancient Temple of their 
goddesses stood on a 
platform cut into the east- 
ern hillside which formed 
the Eleusinian Acropolis. 
The temple was a five- 
cornered structure cover- 
ing nearly an acre, and 
was reckoned one of the 
finest in Greece. In 

JUPITER OLYiMPIUS. r j. i. J 1 IT 

■^ iront stood a large rropy- 

laeum, as fine as that of the Athenians, and beyond that a 
smaller one, which led to the great Temple of Ceres. Here 
was the seat of the Eleusinian Mysteries with their annual pro 
cessions. These lasted eight days, of which however, the 
fourth — or procession of the Sacred Basket — was the principal 
one. The basket was filled with pomegranates and poppy 
seed, and was drawn on a cart by animals, followed by women 
bearing mystic cases. The fifth day was known as Torch Day, 
and consisted of a procession that went into the Temple bear- 
ing lighted torches. All this had a meaning to those who un- 
derstood the history of the goddesses. Ceres was mother of 




ATHENS AND GREECE. 42/ 

Proserpine, who walking one day with her maidens on the 
Nysian plain gathering flowers, and seeing a Narcissus of sur- 
prising beauty, an object of amazement to gods and men, be- 
cause it had one hundred flowers growing from a single root, 

" And with its fragrant smell, wide heaven above, 
And all earth laughed, and the sea's briny flood," 

unconscious of danger, she plucked the rare flower, when the 
earth opened, and Aidoneus, in his golden chariot, arose from 
the chasm, and seizing, carried her away, to be his bride, in the 
Plutonian regions. Ceres hunted her daughter with torches, 
until in despair she came as an old beggar-woman to Eleusis, 
where her true character was discovered, and a temple built 
for her. She taught the people the use of grain, and at last 
prevailed upon Zeus to send to Hades for her daughter, who 
regularly afterwards was permitted to spend a portion of the 
year with her mother. The whole is a beautiful allegory, rep- 
resenting the life of the earth. Ceres is Mother Earth, and in 
the fall Proserpine (Life) is carried away to the cold Plutonian 
regions, to return with the sunshine of spring, and once more 
gladden her mother. The mysteries are but little understood 
to-day, from the strict secrecy which pervaded them, but are 
understood to have been weird ceremonies to instruct the initiated 
into the mysteries of the seasons by means of the above al- 
legory. 

From Eleusis, it is about three miles across the bay to the 
Straits of Salamis, where was fought the great battle between 
the Greeks and Persians, and upon a towering hill called 
Xerxes, Seat, is where that monarch is said to have been seated 
to witness the battle 

Our next stopping-place, after leaving Eleusis, was Megara, 
the old home of Euclid, and now a place of some importance, 
after which we made no more stops till we reached Kalamaki, 
the east mouth of the Corinthian Canal. This enterprise was 
often mooted, centuries before the Christian Era, but Nero was 
the first to begin work upon it, a. d, 6^] . The Emperor began 
it with great pomp, throwing out several shovelfuls of earth 
with a golden spade. This canal was designed to displace the 



428 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



ship railway that had long been in use, by which galleys Avere 
transported across the land from the port of Corinth on" the 
west, to Cenchrea on the east. The work was soon aban- 
doned, the attention of the Emperor being diverted by. an in- 
surrection in Gaul. King George, however, began it anew on 
May 4, 1882, and when we passed along the line it seemed as 
though the work was nearly done. The beginning of the next 
decade will doubtless witness the completion of the work. 
The Isthmus is about six miles wide at the narrowest place. 




REMAINS OF RUINED TEMPLE AT CORINTH. 



• At Corinth Station (Lutraki) we found a fine dinner await- 
ing us, after which we proceeded in carriages along the shores 
of the Corinthian Gulf to the remains of ancient Corinth. There 
are but few ruins left. There is an amphitheater going back 
to the time of Pausanias, and a number of Roman remains, 
most probably the work of Hadrian. There are, however, 
seven Doric pillars that are at least seven centuries older than 
our era, and supposed .to. be portions of the Temple of the 
Corinthian Minerva. The}^ are greatly damaged, both by time 
and earthquake shocks, but lift their patriarchal heads aloft 
with dignity o'er the fledgling remains of only two thousand 
years. The greater part of the time was spent in making the 




> 



'> 



ATHENS AND GREECE. 



431 



ascent of the Acro-Corinthus, the ancient Acropolis, which 
rises out of the plain, a single peak, to the height of 2,000 
feet. It is one of the strongest natural fortresses in the world, 
and has been greatly strengthened by artificial means. It can 
be clearly seen from Athens, on a fair day. The garrison 




lions' gate, mycen^. 



usually consists, in time of peace, of twenty-five or thirty sol- 
diers, but at the time of our visit there were none. One re- 
markably fine feature of it is the bountiful supply of pure 
water. At the summit is the famous Pierian Spring, familiar to 
the modern school-boy in the couplet — • 



432 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

- • ■ ■ "A little learning is a dangerous thing — 

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring." 

The view from the summit of the Acro-Corinthus is cer- 
tainly the finest in all Greece. Facing the east, we could just 
outline the Acropolis, towering, sentinel-like, over Athens, 
fifty miles distant, while only a few miles away, and seemingly 
just at our feet, lay Cenchrea, where Paul landed in his jour- 
ney to Corinth, and where he performed the vow recorded in 
Acts xviii. 1 8. To the south lay Mycenae, in its mountain 
defile, whose citadel, approached, through the Lions' Gate, is 
the scene of Dr. Schliemann's principal discoveries in Greece. 
It was our pleasure to be invited to his house, and hear from 
his own lips the eloquent story, as well as that of Troy. From 
a passage in Pausanias, he was led to believe that just within 
the Lions' Gate was the Agora, and that beneath were buried 
the national heroes. Excavating, he discovered the tombs of 
Agamemnon and his companions, together with that mag- 
nificent collection of gold and silver treasures of the highest 
artistic interest, and that is the admiration of all travelers who. 
visit the Government Museum at Athens. Dr. Schliemann is 
an enthusiastic American, as are also all the members of his 
famJly. Our visit was upon the sixteenth anniversary of the 
birth of his eldest daughter, and all seemed pleased to have 
American countrymen present on the occasion. He lives in 
one of the handsomest houses in Athens, adorned without 
by fine marble statues, and within by everything that classic 
culture and unlimited wealth can procure. 

But returning to the Acro-Corinthus, and facing north, we 
see on the right a huge camel-backed mountain, and learn that 
it is Helicon, while on our left Parnassus towers aloft its 
snowy head. At our feet lies what little is left of the once 
proud and luxurious city — the key city of Greece, both in 
peace and war. At the time of Paul's first visit, it had 
..pgissed iinder Roman sway, and was peopled with freedmen 
fi'om Rome, over whom GalHo, brother of the philosopher 
Seneca, held proconsulship. Paul was met here by Silas and 
Timothy, who rejoined him from Macedonia. Here he wrote 
the two Thessalonian Epistles, and became acquainted with 



ATHENS AND GREECE. 433 

Aquila and Priscilla. Here he founded the church to which 
he afterwards addressed the two Corinthian Epistles— the Church 
of Stephanas and Crispus, Caius and Erastus. As I look from 
the lofty eminence from whence the apostle had also doubtless 
often enjoyed a similar view, the old ruins at my feet seemed 
to be starting into new life. Up arose, as by magic, the 
beautiful Temple of Athenae, from out its cypress groves ; the 
great marble-paved Aphitheatre, 300 by 200 feet, adorned 
with its marble sculptures ; the marble stairway leading down 
into it from the Acro-Corinthus ; while down from the city to 
the harbor led the wide avenue, lined with ghttering houses, 




VIEW OF THE ACROPOLIS AT CORINTH. 

and along whose center are found at regular intervals costly 
statues and fine monuments. 

But Nikodemus, the guide, informs me that we must be 
going, or we shall miss the train for Athens. We arrived late 
at night, but there had been reserved a good dinner for us. 
We felt a sincere regret at leaving Athens. It was one of the 
few European cities in which we should like to live. We left 
at 6 p. M. Sunday, May 8, from the Piraeus, bidding farewell 
with regret to Dr. Schliemann and wife, who came down to the 
departing steamer. 

Our impressions as to the future of Greece can not be more 



434 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



tersely expressed than they are in an article by Prof. Seymour, 
in a recent issue of Scribner s : "Since 1870 the advance has 
been very rapid. The country now has more miles of railway 
than it then had of common highway ; bridges have been built, 
harbors have been improved, the canal across the isthmus has 
been dug, preparations are making to drain marshes. The 
number of acres of ground devoted to agriculture has largely 
increased. The population of Athens has doubled. Many 

Greek families which have long 
resided out of Greece, are now 
returning to their country, 
bringing with them both energy 
and capital. The people are 
better educated. Extensive 
archaeological excavations have 
been conducted ; the museums 
have been enriched. The land 
has been made far more at- 
tractive and accessible to for- 
eigners. Brigandage has been 
put down. The kingdom is ruled 
by a Ministry more prudent 
and more firmly established 
than any which has preceded. 
The land is still suffering from 
poverty and bad political habits, 
but with the frugality and tem- 
perance of the people it must 
gain wealth, dignity, and au- 
«ERA. thority. Indeed, it seems not 

improbable that Greece has before it a second career of influ- 
ence and power. The betrothal of the Grecian Crown Prince 
to the sister of the German Emperor is a significant fact, and 
shows that it is a part of the policy of the Hohenzollerns to fos- 
ter the little kingdom. " 

We had now four days' sail to Trieste, and then we were to 
see Venice. 





'■^^'-^.^...^^ 



Page 436. 



VENICE. 

After a good night's rest, v/e rose early in the morning, 
just in time to catch the first ghmpse of the ancient steeples 
and towers of Venice rising out of the placid lagoon which 
forms her watery throne. We anchored about 8 o'clock, and 
were immediately surrounded by a fleet of gondolas that 
swarmed about us like immense black swans. They are very 
easy and graceful in motion, and move upon the water with 
astonishing rapidity. They take the place of cab, carriage, 
omnibus, street car and horse among the Venetians. I was 
greatly surprised to find none of them painted in colors, until 
I was informed that during the fifteenth century an edict was 
passed requiring all of them to be painted black. It is claimed 
that this was the work of the aristocracy, who, tiring of seeing 
their plebeian imitators turn out in such gaudily-attired gondo- 
las, passed this law to give them a rebuke. The law has 
fallen into desuetude, but the custom obtains. Foreigrn am- 
bassadors were the only ones allowed to decorate their gondo- 
las, and this not so much as an act of courtesy as to enable the 
suspicious Venetians to keep track of their movements. The 
gondoliers we found to be unusually inteUigent and attentive. 
They do not draw out the long, single oar from the water, but 
use it entirely upon one side. Often, as we passed an ap- 
proaching boat with not an inch between us, or rounded a cor- 
ner building in a similar fashion, I was fearful of a collision ; 
but not in a single instance did it occur. 

Venice (pronounced Ven-neet-siah) is situated upon seventy- 
two islands in the Adriatic Sea, and has for centuries been 
called the " Queen of the Adriatic." It is divided into two 
divisions by the Grand Canal, that winds in a tortuous manner 
through the city, and is intersected by 146 smaller ones. These 
are spanned by 306 bridges, which are intended for foot- 



438 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE, 



passengers, and are highly arched, that they may not interfere 
with gondola travel. The Grand Canal is about 150 feet wide, 
and is spanned by one principal bridge, commonly called the 
Ponte Rialto. It was built of marble, in 1591, by Antonio de 
Ponte, and has stairways, that the people may ascend and de- 




scend its magnificent arch that spans nearly a hundred feet of 
water. When, in the " Merchant of Venice," Shylock says, 

" Signer Antonio, many a time and oft, 
On the Rialto, you have rated me," 

reference is supposed to be made to this structure. 



VENICE. 439 

No city in Europe has a more remarkable history than 
Venice. This chapter might be filled with simply a record of 
the events that have transpired to make it famous. The defeat 
of Barbarossa ; capture of Constantinople ; victories over its 
rivals, Genoa and Pisa ; treason of Falerio ; cruel fates of la 
Carrara and Foscari ; wars with the Ottoman, and victory of 
Lepanto, are not a tithe of its wonderful events. Think of 
the wonderful discoveries and inventions to which it has given 
birth ! Here Galileo invented the telescope, and studied the 
stars from the summit of St. Mark's bell-tower. Here Loyola 
organized the famous Order of the Jesuits, whose influence is 
felt to-day in every civilized and uncivilized country in the 
world. Here the first book was printed in Italy. The first 
editions of the Bible and the classics were issued from a Vene- 
tian press, and more books printed in the Hebrew language 
than from all the rest of the world. The first newspaper in the 
world was issued at Venice ; and from being sold at the price of 
a Gazetta — a Venetian coin — it took its name from it, and has 
transmitted the same to hundreds of " Gazettes " that have 
followed it. Venice gave birth to Banking and Bills of Ex- 
change. Artillery warfare also began there. Near the statue 
of Vittoria Pisani, in the Arsenal, is an old specimen of ord- 
nance used in 1380 by him against the Genoese. It could be 
discharged but once a day, and threw a stone weighing a hun- 
dred pounds. The Venetian, Barde, invented a ballista, that 
threw a weight of one and one-half tons, and while repairing 
it, the inventor was hurled over the walls to his death, by its 
premature discharge. Here was born, or lived, or died, Titian, 
the painter ; Tintoretto, the carver, and his no less gifted 
daughter. Marietta Robusti ; Canova and Bembo ; Giorgione 
and Goldoni ; Paolo Sarpi and Marco Polo. 

But the reader must remember that we have not yet had 
breakfast, and that fact will thrust itself upon the attention of 
travelers, no matter with what historic memories they may be 
filled. We stopped at the Hotel Victoria, a somber, gloomy 
building, with walls three feet thick, but scrupulously neat and 
tidy. 



440 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

After a hearty breakfast, we started out for a walk through 
the city, which may seem odd to one who has been accustomed 
to think of Venice as having only zvater-wdiys. While the 
fronts of nearly all the houses open out on canals, the rears 
open out into little streets four or five feet wide, and corres- 
ponding to our alleys. Occasionally you will find a grand 
avenue as wide as ten or fifteen feet. 

The first place that every traveler visits is St. Mark's Square 
(Piazza San Marco), the largest open space in the city, and one 
of the finest of its kind in Europe. It is about lOO yards wide 
and 200 long. It is paved with marble and dark stone. Three 
sides of it are inclosed by shops and cafes, while St. Mark's 
Cathedral occupies the other. These shops are filled with the 
finest wares and productions of Venice, arranged in the most 
attractive order. American ladies who are fond of ' ' shopping, " 
find it a paradise. In fact, I have seen dignified clergymen, 
who would not think of doing such a thing at home, spend 
whole hours lounging around these shops, pricing everything, 
bantering and ''Jewing" the shopkeepers, and occasionally- 
getting swindled into paying double for an article in one shop 
that they would have to pay in the adjoining one. On the 
spot where St. Mark's Church now stands there formerly stood 
a church dedicated to St. Theodore, first patron of the Repub- 
lic. The reason of the change has been told by Hazlitt : "In 
the year 829 A. D.,the body of St. Mark, the evangelist, which 
had long lain in the temple founded by himself at Alexandria, 
if we may credit the prevalent tradition, was transferred to Ven- 
ice by two merchants of the latter city. " In order to escape with 
it, they placed it in a vessel, and then covered it with pork, know- 
ing the well-known aversion of the Turks to touching the latter. 
When it arrived in the city, the church preceding the present 
magnificent edifice was built for it, and his remains are now 
said to rest under the high altar. The first objects to arrest 
the visitor's attention are the four bronze horses (shown in the 
illustration) over the entrance to the church. Their origin is 
lost in antiquity — some suppose them to be Roman works, 
that originally surmounted triumphal arches to Trajan, Nero, 
and others; while the more prevalent opinion is, that they were 




Il!!i!|!|| 



ii''V:!!!;llil'li''! 



'''■''''!!lili|l!llliH"ii!i' 



liilili^^l^l^ i 



illftlH^^^^^^^^^^^^ 



mmi 






^^n^ iliill\mill',iV,V.A'Jli'.Uviu .. 



VENICE. 



443 



the work of Lysippus, a Greek of the Isle of Chio, and made 
to grace a triumphal car. Their known history has been most 
eventful. They were sent to Constantinople by Constantine, 
to adorn his new capital. The Doge, Dandolo, brouglit them 
with other spoils from the east. In 1797 Napoleon captured 




COLLEONI STATUE, VENICE. 



them, and sent them over the Alps to Paris, and had them 
placed upon the Triumphal Arch in the Place du Carrousel. 
Twenty years later, The Austrian Emperor, Francis I., caused 
them to be returned to where they are now. They are very 



444 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

fine works of art, but, in the opinion of the writer, not nearly 
so fine as the more modern one, the equestrian statue of 
Bartolommeo Colleoni, in this same city. 

Before entering the church door, you pass over a porphyry 
slab in the pavement, which marks the spot where the proud 
Emperor, Frederic Barbarossa, prostrated himself, and Pope 
Alexander III. is said to have placed his foot upon his neck, 
producing a "Thus saith the Lord " for it in the passage, 
"Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder." Rogers 
describes it: 

" In that temple porch 

(The brass is gone, the porphyry remains) 

Did Barbarossa fling his mantle off, 

And, kneeling, on his neck receive the foot 

Of the proud pontiff — thus at last consoled 

For flight, disguise, and many an agueish shake, 

On his stone pillow." 

The front of the church is beautifully ornamented with mo- 
saics which represent the transporting of St. Mark's body from 
Alexandria — "The Last Judgment," " The Descent from the 
Cross," " Resurrection," and " Ascension." The doors lead- 
ing into the church are of bronze silver inlaid, one of which 
was taken from the Church of St. Sophia, at Constantinople. 
There are also some columns claimed to have ornamented the 
Temple at Jerusalem, others from Tyre, Constantinople and 
Greece. Over the screen which separates the choir are four- 
teen marble statues representing the twelve apostles, St. Mark, 
and the Madonna. They are colored with age, till they have 
about the hue of a well-used meerschaum pipe. Of course 
such a building must have other sacred relics beside the 
body of St. Mark — so they will show you the chair that he 
used at Alexandria ; some of the Saviour's blood in a crystal 
vase; part of St. John's skull; a piece of the true cross, and 
the stone on which John the Baptist was beheaded. The sup- 
ply of relics they have on hand at present is neither so full nor 
varied as in former days, owing, most probably, to the large 
falling off in the demand; but such as they have are staple, 
and possess a good marketable value. 



VENfCE, 



445 



While speaking of churches, I can not omit the mention of 
Santa Maria Gloriosa della Frati, the Westminster Abbey of 
Venice. On the right, as you enter, is the monument of Ven- 
ice's great artist, Titian, who died of the plague in the i6th 
century. His body was borne hence, and buried in honor, con- 




trary to the law, which demanded that all who died of that 
dread disease should be carried out of the city. His monu- 
ment represents the artist seated under a canopy, surrounded 
by figures representing Painting, Carving, Sculpture and Ar- 
chitecture. Just across the Church is the monument to Canova, 



446 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

designed by himself for Titian. It is a pyramid in Carrara 
marble. Upon its face are doors opening into a tomb, while 
Religion, Art and Genius are entering as mourners. The 
only words are ''Hie Canova." His heart only is buried 
here, his body resting in his native village, Possagno. 

The Campanile or Bell-Tower (seen in preceding illustration) 
of St. Mark's, stands in front of the church, in St. Mark's 
Square. It is 40 feet square at the base, and 350 feet high, 
crowned with a pyramidal pinnacle. It was begun 91 1 A. D., 
and completed 15 10 a. d. The view of the whole city from the 
summit well repays the tourist for ascending it. Napoleon as- 
cended it on horseback, but we would not advise that method 
at present. In the dark ages, priests who had broken their 
vows were caged and suspended from the summit till they died. 

In the street leading down from St. Mark's Square to the ■ 
quay are two tall monolith pillars, brought, most probably, 
from Syria. One is red, and bears upon its summit St. Theo- 
dore, the former patron saint of Venice. He stands upon a 
crocodile, and wields a sword with his left hand, while the right 
hand holds the shield. This looks decidedly awkward until 
you are informed that the early policy of Venice was the strong 
arm for defensive and the zveak arm for offensive warfare, when 
it really appears quite graceful. The other pillar is gray, and 
surmounted by the famous winged lion, the emblem of St. 
Mark. It is commonly known as the Lion of St. Mark's. 
Since my return, I read a good story of an American traveler 
who had spent two months in Europe, and had, of course, seen 
everything it contained. In telling of his trip to Venice, some 
one asked him if he saw the Lion of St. Mark's. " Oh, yes," 
he replied, "I used to go out frequently to the zoological gar- 
dens and see him. I happened in there one day at noon, and 
saw him fed. " 

These pillars lay upon the quay for a long time, till one 
Nicolo reared them, claimed, and was accorded perm.ission to 
keep a gambling table at their base. The gambling mania 
was thus cultivated till the government, in order to stop it, 
was compelled to use the space between them as the place of 
execution. When Falerio was elected Doge, he landed here, 



VENICE. 



447 



and in the fog inadvertently passed between the two pillars ; 
and his unfortunate end is attributed by the superstitious to 
the above accident. 

The most remarkable building in Venice is the Doge's Pal- 
ace. Destroyed by fire on five successive occasions, only to 
rise, Phoenix-like, with renewed beauty. It is entered by the 




PALAZZO PESARO, VENICE. 



Gate of the Placard — owing its name to the fact that edicts of 
the Republic were placarded there — near St. Mark's, which 
leads into a large open court. From this court we as- 
cended the Giant's Stairway — named after some colossal statues 
that adorned it — that led up to a corridor where the Doges were 
crowned. Here also, our guide informed us, stood the famous 



44^ AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

"lion's mouth," to receive anonymous charges that any one 
might wish to make against offenders. Turning to the right, 
we passed on to the Golden Stairs, once sacred to the feet of 
Venetian blue-blood, whose names were found in "The Golden 
Book." To give a description of the treasures of this building 
would make a book in itself. We can only enumerate the 
Grand Halls, with some of their remarkable features : 

TJie Hall of the Grand Council, 175 feet long and 85 wide. — 
Here sat the nobles of Venice that constituted the Grand Coun- 
cil. At the eastern end of the hall is the " Glory of Par- 
adise," by Tintoretto, once the largest picture ever painted 
upon canvas (84 by 34 feet), but now completely thrown into 
the shade by the large panoramas of our American cities. 
Passing through a small corridor, we entered the Hall of Elec- 
tions, where the chosen representatives of the Grand Council 
were elected to nominate a Doge. 

The Hall of the Council of the Ten. — It was here that 
famous Council — invested with supreme authority — sat with 
masked faces to listen to the excuses and defenses of the ac- 
cused. " The lion's mouth was everywhere — at the landing of 
the giant stair-case ; at the portals of the ducal palace ; at the 
entrance of the Chamber of the Ten ; and below each, was in- 
scribed 'Denounce! Denounce!' Once denounced, the vic- 
tim is seized ; once seized, he is sentenced ; once sentenced, 
all is over. Nothing is seen, heard, suspected of his fate; he 
disappears." As we stood within the walls of this strange 
room we thought of the hundreds who, with palpitating hearts, 
had entered by the same doorway, and possibly stood upon the 
same spots, and went out, without a ray of hope, to their 
deaths. But near this is the Hall of the Three. This was, if 
possible, a more mysterious and terrible tribunal than that of 
the Ten. Here the victim was placed and questioned by the 
Secretary from without, while the Three listened to his replies 
without his being aware of it, from their places of conceal- 
ment. Just across the canal Rio del Palazzo, from the Doge's 
Palace, is the public prison, and connecting the two, as a 
covered passway, is the famous Bridge of Sighs, which Byron 



VENICE. 



449 



has rendered familiar to the world by his fourth canto of 
" Childe Harold " : 

" I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs; 
A palace and a prison on each hand ; 
I saw from out the waves her structure rise, 
As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand ; 
A thousand years their cloudy wings expand 







PALAZZO CA D ORO. 



Around me, and a dying glpry smiles 

O'er the far times, when many a subject land 

Looked to the winged lion's marble piles, 

When Venice sat in state, throned on her hundred isles." 



450 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

As the criminals were led from their judgment to execution, 
they were allowed to take their last look from the window of 
this famous bridge. A short distance above the Palace is the 
Arsenal, which is the depository of many valuable relics of an- 
cient Venetian war history. In its noonday of glory, Venice 
employed 16,000 men in the Arsenal, and there builded her 
fleets that held sway over the Adriatic and Mediterranean. 
There is, at present, an insignificant number employed. In 
front of the building are four lions, brought from Athens, one 
of which is very old, and is thought to be a memorial of the 
battle of Marathon. In the Arsenal are the remains and model 
of the famous Bucentaur, the galley used by the Doge during 
the ceremony of wedding the sea, by dropping a ring into the 
Adriatic. This custom originated when Alexander III. met the 
Doge returning from a victory over Barbarossa, and presented 
him with the ring on his finger, and said: "Take this ring; 
use it, O Doge ! to retain the sea henceforth in subjection to 
this city, Venice. Yea, espouse the Adriatic with this ring, 
and let the marriage be amicably celebrated to the end of 
time, that the world may ever know that Venice rules the 
waves, and that the sea is subject to it, even as a wife unto 
her husband." The annual ceremony was celebrated with 
great pomp on Ascension Day. When the French occupied 
Venice, they broke up the Bucentaur for the sake of the gold 
ornaments, which amounted to nearly $50,000. The iron hel- 
met of Attila, king of the Huns, is also among the curiosities 
of the Arsenal. 

One of the most interesting events to the traveler is a ride 
upon the Grand Canal, past the historic houses and gorgeous 
palaces with which it is lined. These are numbered by the 
hundred, but our illustrations present a few of the most re- 
markable. 

Palazzo Pesaro. — This belongs to the seventeenth century, 
and is one of the most handsome in the city. When the 
owner beheld the French in possession of his beloved city, 
and the tri-color displace the Lion of St. Mark's, he abandoned 
his home and expatriated himself, rather than see his city 
under the domination of foreign rulers. 



VENICE. 



451 



Palazzo Ca d'Oro.—Th\s belongs to the thirteenth cen- 
tury. There is some doubt as to the origin of the name, some 
claiming it to come from its formerly having been gilded, while 



yU/y 



'\ 




PALACE MANIN, VENICE. 



others assert that it was the property of Andrea Doro, who 
was banished as a conspirator, 13 10 a. d. The Arabian style 
of architecture prevails in its construction. 



452 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



Palazzo Manin was the residence of the last of the Doges. 
It afterward became the residence of the patriot, Daniel Manin, 
one of the most remarkable men of modern Venice. He was 
imprisoned as a political offender, but on March 17, 1848, the 
people stormed the prison, carried him away, and placed him 




at the head of the revolutionary government. In 1849 ^^ '^^' 
fended the city with great heroism against the Austrians, and 
when it was captured, he was excluded from all treaty stipula- 
tions, together with forty of his compatriots. He repaired to- 
Paris, where he supported himself by teaching. He died in 



VENICE. 453 

in 1857, of heart disease. His remains were brought to Ven- 
ice in 1868, and buried in St. Mark's Church. He was the 
first to be given burial in the holy precincts for three centuries. 
The funeral gondola was decorated with much taste, the bow 
being surmounted by the Lion of St. Mark, resplendent with 
gold, and bearing the Venetian standard, veiled with black 
crape. On both sides of the vessel, from prow to stern, ran 
transparencies, on which were painted the arms of the principal 
towns of Italy. At the stern stood two silvery colossal 
statues, representing the union of Italy with Venetia. The 
palace is now occupied by the National Banking Co, 



VENICE TO BASLE. 

At Venice the remnant of our little party dissolved, that had 
held together during the long Oriental tour. Desertions began 
at Beyrout, and continued at Smyrna, Constantinople, Athens, 
and Trieste. Now Bro. Errett and I were alone again. 

We left Venice Saturday afternoon at two o 'clock, for 
Verona, passing on the way Padua, the oldest city in North 
Italy, its foundation being attributed to the exiles who were 
driven out of Troy at its downfall. Its University was very 
celebrated in the 14th and 15th centuries, drawing students 
not only from Europe, but Asia and Africa. Dante, Pe- 
trarch, and Harvey studied here, while Galileo was a Pro- 
fessor. 

At 6 p. M. we alighted at Verona, and went to the Hotel 
de Londres, one of the best in Italy. Verona is rich in her 
inheritance of great Italians. Catullus was born here, b. c. 
86 ; Cornelius Nepos, the great Latin historian, and also Pliny 
the elder, the greatest Roman writer of his age. While in 
command of the fleet at Misenum, he witnessed the eruption 
of Mt. Vesuvius. Desiring to see it better, he entered a small 
boat and landed where he could obtain a better view. He ap- 
proached too close, however, and while busy with his obser- 
vations, he was surrounded by the poisonous vapors, and suf- 
focated. His body was found some days later by his relatives. 
Next to Turin, this city presents the most American appear- 
ance of any Italian city. It has large manufacturing estab- 
lishments, and is the center of a rich industrial region. Its 
markets are good, its streets clean, and the people have an air 
of intelligence and prosperity. The next morning after our 
arrival, there was a statue of Garibaldi unveiled, which 
event drew large crowds from all North Italy. The bands 
were in every square, regiments of Italians were in every 



VENICE TO BASLE. 455 

street, and the whole affair was most patriotic. Particular 
prominence was given to the old veterans of Garibaldi, and 
the air was rent with shouts whenever the plumed hats were 
seen. In short, it was a patriotic assembling that does good 
to one who loves his country. North Italy is almost unani- 
mous for the union of the Italian States. When the vote was 
taken in Venice, only one or two were recorded against it. 
The great curiosity of Verona is the Amphitheater. While 
not so large as the Coliseum at Rome, it is in an almost per- 
fect state of preservation, and therefore an explanation of the 
latter building. Its extreme dimensions are 512 by 412 feet, 
while the arena is 250 by 147 feet. Its tiers of granite seats, 
40 in number, were 18 inches high, and the same wide, and 
could accommodate 25,000 persons. The outer arches of the 
corridor are used for shops of various kinds, while in other 
respects the great building is jealously guarded. Next to the 
arena, the Cathedral claimed our attention. It was built in the 
time of Charlemagne, but has been greatly altered in succeed- 
ing centuries. The baptistery is made of a single block of 
marble, and is 30 feet in circumference, and 4^ feet in depth. 
This present one was built a. d. 1135, to take the place of an 
older one destroyed by an earthquake a quarter of a century 
previous. On a frieze running round the baptistery, is a rep- 
resentation of John immersing Christ in the Jordan, while 
parties on the shore are holding garments for the change. It 
is a grand argument for the primitive and apostolic practice. 
One of the great curiosities this church contains, is the origi- 
nal serpent of brass ''lifted up'' by Moses m the wilderness. 
It has quite the appearance of bronze, without much brass in 
it. But they could not put much brass in the snake, and have 
enough left to make the claim they do for it. This last relic 
prepared me to almost believe my guide when he took me out 
to an old suppressed convent, and going round to an old build- 
ing that looked suspiciously like a stable, and pointing to a 
stone trough, told me that it was Juliet's tomb. I had just 
passed the house of Juliet's parents, in St. Sebastian street, with 
the insignia of the Capulets still over the entrance; moreover. 



456 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

I have a thousand witnesses to the truth of the guide's state- 
ment, in the half bushel or more of cards which sentimental 
travelers from all countries have cast into it. I can 't prove it 
is not her tomb, nor show any one that has a better claim. A 
man that has just seen the original serpent of brass, ought to 
be ashamed to have such doubts ; and I think I might be able 
to believe it, if it did not look so much like a Jiorse-irough in 
an old deserted stable ! 

From Verona we went to Milan, where we found a mag- 
nificent city — the largest in North Italy. Its sights are few, but 
grand, and can easily be described. It has walls, and is entered 
by ten gates. The first great spot with all Italian cities, is the 
cathedral. The one in Milan is perhaps the most gorgeous in 
the world. It is entirely constructed of marble, and is built 
in the shape of a Latin cross. It is 490 feet long, i8o feet 
wide, and the tower 354 feet high. The. great feature of the 
building is the number of statues upon its roof and outer sides. 
As to the number, there is great difference among writers. Dr. 
Prime says there are 7,000. with niches for 3,000 more. Mur- 
ray and Harper say 4,400. As we had not time to count 
them, we resorted to the great American habit of "splitting 
the difference," and will say 5,500, with room for 1,500 others. 
Four of the statues are pointed out as the work of Canova. 
The interior of the Cathedral is not in keeping with its ex- 
terior, but nevertheless presents a very imposing appearance. 
The pictures are exceedingly fine, especially those representing 
Bible history, in the rear part of the great altar. In a subter- 
ranean chapel under the dome, rest the remains of St. Charles 
Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan in the i6th century, and a 
great-hearted man, who exemplified many of the cardinal vir- 
tues of Christianity in his life, and has been called by some 
"The Father of Sunday-schools." The baptistery, like that 
of Verona, is adapted for immersion, and, unlike that of 
Verona, it is used for immersing purposes. Among the sacred 
relics (?) are a nail from the true Cross, which is hung over the 
great altar in a casket ; a number of teeth, belonging to such 
eminent characters as Daniel, Flisha, and Abraham ; the rod 
of Moses ; the towel with which Christ wiped the feet of his 




THE CATHEDRAL AT MILAN. 



Page 457. 



VENICE TO BASLE. 459 

followers ; a portion of his purple robe, and soime of the thorns 
from his crown. 

After viewing the Cathedral, we proceeded to Santa Maria, 
and from thence to a convent adjoining it, on the wall of the 
refectory of which is what is left of Leonardo da Vinci's 
great painting, " The Last Supper." I had seen all through 
our Western country many engravings of it, which had touched 
my heart with a tinge of sorrow, even in my boyhood. But 
when I stood in the presence of it, I must confess to great dis- 
appointment. Time, war and dampness have well nigh obliter- 
ated this most celebrated picture in the world. If the artist 
can still shed his tears over it, they must be tears of sorrow 
over its ruin. The sad face of the Christ pierces the heart 
yet, but with that exception, little is left to admire. For me, 
however, to attempt a criticism or description of this picture, 
would be folly ; but I subjoin both, from the pen of Victor 
Shultze, Theological Professor in the University of Griefswald, 
Germany : 

"In 1483, Lionardo came from Florence to Milan, to offer 
his various talents to the duke, Ludovico Sforza. Soon we 
find him actively at work. He discloses his marvelous versa- 
tality as a painter, sculptor, master of ceremonies, engineer, 
and author. He thus proves himself to be a true man of the 
Renaissance, the ideal of which was the ' iiomo universale, ' the 
universal man. In 1496, he began to execute a commission of 
the Dominicans of Santa Maria delle Grazie, to paint the holy 
Supper of the Lord in the refectory of their monastery. Two 
years later the picture was finished. Its appearance carried 
the contemporaries away with admiration. And this made 
more painful the experience that only half a century later it 
was well-nigh a ruin. The blame for this is due to the fact that 
Lionardo in this work used oil colors instead of painting in 
fresco, and to several unfavorable local circumstances. The 
devastation increased in the following centuries, and to-day the 
magnificent work is scarcely a shadow of what it once was. 
Only with great difficulty is the investigator able to secure an 
exact idea of it from older engravings and copies. The beautiful 
engraving of Raphael Morghen, through which the picture has 



460 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

been made familiar to all the world, is, to be sure, an ex- 
cellent piece of work, and must be regarded as the best copy; 
but it corresponds neither in its total character, nor in many 
details, to the vigorous originality of Lionardo's work. 

"The Lord and his disciples sit at a long table covered 
with a white cloth. A triple window opens up to view a moun- 
tain landscape, through which winds a silvery stream. Right 
opposite to the spectator, at the middle of the table, the 
Saviour is perceived. His head is slightly bowed, andhis lips 
are half opened ; for at this moment he has just spoken the signif- 
icant words, ' One of you shall betray me. ' This is the cause 
of the deep sadness on his noble, sublime countenance. His 
quiet resignation is in sharp contrast to the effect produced by 
the words upon the circle of listening disciples. We can 
easily distinguish four groups, each full of inquietude and com- 
motion. Astonishment and fright, indignation and passionate 
excitement, run along the whole line, and are vividly indicated 
in the facial expressions, and in the movement of hands and 
body. Only John, the beloved disciple of the Lord, seems to- 
take no part in the excitement around him. His grief has 
turned inward. As if stunned by the shocking news, he sits 
there, his head bent, his eyes closed, his hands folded. From 
John's bright figure the betrayer is sharply distinguished. At 
the words of the Lord he has shrunk back, and turned his face 
toward him, as if he would arrest the continuation of the ut- 
terance with his dark looks. His right hand grasps the purse 
convulsively. 

" One might venture, without hesitation, to put into words 
the feelings of each of the disciples. In the midst of this in- 
quietude* with confusion flowing back and forth, the majestic 
tranquility and unshaken sublimity of the Saviour appear the 
more splendid. The stream of commotion takes its rise from 
him, and at him finds again its barrier, where its waves are 
stayed." 

To the shame of Napoleon Bonaparte, it is said that while 
at Milan this building was turned into barracks, and this par- 
ticular room was made a stable. The monks themselves 



VENICE TO BASLE. 463 

mutilated the picture by cutting- through it to make a doorway. 
It is 30 by 15 feet. 

One of the most imposing sights in the city is the Arch of 
Peace. It is built on the road leading to the Simplon Pass, 
and is often called the Simplon Arch. It was originally in- 
tended to commemorate the battle of Jena, and was to have 
been embellished with a statue of Victory ; but falling into 
the hands of the Austrians, they changed it to the Arch of 
Peace, and placed upon its summit a bronze statue of Peace, 
in a car drawn by six horses. It is covered all over with em- 
blems and allegorical figures. Its total cost was nearly a mill- 
ion dollars, the surmounting car and figures costing ;$2oo,ooo. 

From Milan, our route turned northward till we reached 
the city of Como, upon the beautiful Lake Como. We ar- 
rived just in time to take tJie boat. We have read many de- 
scriptions of this charming body of water, chief of which is 
the one by Bulwer, in " Lady of Lyons," where he represents 
the Count telling Pauline of his palace: "A deep vale, shut 
out by Alpine hills from the rude world, near a clear lake mar- 
gined by fruits of gold and whispering myrtles ; glassing softest 
skies, cloudless, save with rare and roseate shadows. ... A 
marble palace, lifting to eternal heaven its marble walls from 
out a glossy bower of coolest foliage, musical with birds." 
Beautiful as these lines may be, they fall far short of describ- 
ing the sights that rise constantly before the eye of the traveler 
on the bosom of this lake. The lake is thirty-five miles long, 
and has three arms. We went up to Bellaggio, midway, and 
the place of meeting for the three arms of the lake, and spent 
the night. While eating our dinner that evening, we looked 
out of the dining-room window, and could see the snow banked 
up on the summit of the Italian Alps, till it looked like the 
great fleecy clouds of a summer's day. 

Returning down the lake next morning, we took the St. 
Gothard Railway for Basle. The building of a railway line 
over the great mountain barrier that rises between Central 
Switzerland and smiling Italy, was a task requiring nearly fifty 
millions of dollars. This was a sum too great for any stock 
companies. The governments of Italy, Germany and Switz- 



464 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

erland proposed to furnish half the sum, and the enterprise 
was inaugurated at Lucerne, 1871, and completed some ten 
years later. Eight miles from Como, at Chiasso, we passed 
into Switzerland, Avithout any custom-house examination, 
merely keeping our seats in the cars, while others got 
out and passed the ordeal. About forty miles north 
of Chiasso we came to BelHnzona, a town which has wit- 
nessed many a bloody contest between the Swiss and Itali- 
ans. Three large castles, 500 years old, crown the hills above 
it. Another hour, and we reach Airolo, the southern end 
of the long tunnel, into which our train winds its way, to 
emerge at Goschenen half an hour later. The boring of this 
tunnel took a force of 3,000, men seven years continually work- 
ing. The rock is a hard granite, and had to be pierced by 
diamond-pointed drills, worked by compressed air. When the 
holes were made, they were filled with dynamite, the explosion 
of which would bring down an average of 100 cubic feet of 
rock. Seventy men w^ere killed while working in it, and the 
contractor, Mons. Louis Favre, lost his life in it by apoplexy 
only a few months before its completion. In descending the 
next nine miles from the north, our train ran through three 
spiral tunnels, making a complete circuit each time. A few 
miles farther brought us to Altdorf, the scene of Wm. Tell's 
exploits. The spot where Tell stood is marked by a colossal 
plaster statue of the hero, while the tree where the bo)^ stood, 
and which was blown down in 1567, is now marked by a foun- 
tain. The next station is Fluelen, on the lake, shortly after 
passing which, is seen on our left, Tell's Piatt, where Tell 
steered when in the storm with the tyrant, Gessler, and to 
which he leaped from the boat and made his escape. One 
hour more brought us to Lucerne and comfortable quarters in 
the Hotel du Cygne (Swan Hotel). After dinner, Bro. Errett 
feeling indisposed to go out, I took a stroll up the street along 
the lake front, and went into the old Cathedral. The organist 
was giving one of his summer concerts, which are customary 
among "tourist" cities. It is a marvelous organ, and the old 
German, with his knee breeches and buckles, and his quaint 
dress, seemed to be its perfect master. We had expected to 



VENICE TO BASLE. 465 

devote the next day to the ascent of the Righi-Kulm, but 
the clouds were hanging over its summit so as to shut out the 
view, and we did not go. The Lion of Lucerne is the great 
object of interest in the city. It is cut out of the natural rock 
in a hillside, and represents a lion twenty-eight feet in length, 
dying from a lance-wound, sheltering the French shield. It is 
in memory of the Swiss lancers who fell in defense of the Tuil- 
leries, 1792. It is the work of the Danish sculptor, Thor- 
waldsen. 

As the sights of Lucerne are not numerous, we stopped 
only one day, and then took the train through as charming and 
well-kept a country as I ever saw, to Basle, upon the Rhine, 
just across the Swiss line in Germany. Our stopping-place is 
the Three Kings Hotel. By the "Three Kings " is meant the 
wise men of the East, who journeyed to Bethlehem. 



BASLE TO COLOGNE. 

Basle is an old Roman town, and derives its name from 
Basileia, or Queen, because of its queenly situation. It is now 




ERASMUS. 



a city of nearly 50,000 inhabitants, and lies on both sides of 

the river. The current here is so swift that no steamboat can 

force its way ; but they have invented a little boat that forces 
466 



BASLE TO COLOGNE. . 467 

itself up stream by the pressure of the ctirrent pressing against 
it — about as near a rival to the man that lifted himself over the 
fence by the straps of his boots, as I ever saw. 

Among the celebrated men of whom Basle boasts, was 
Erasmus, the great wit and scholar of his time. Although 
born at Rotterdam, he lived at Basle, and here published his 
"Colloquia, " generally accredited his master-work. He also 
produced the first printed edition of the Greek New Testa- 
ment. He was a great friend of Luther, and brought down 
the wrath of Rome upon his head by his satires upon the 
monks and clergy ; yet his nature was not deep enough to 
enter heartily into the great work of the Reformation. He 
loved ease rather than truth, yet he was a truly great man, and 
had his heart become inflamed with Luther's zeal, the Refor- 
mation would doubtless have achieved far greater results. 
There is a monument to his memory in the Cathedral, which 
is one of the finest Protestant churches in the world. 

They have a hbrary with 100,000 volumes, and a collection 
of MSS., which includes the writings of many of the Reform- 
ers. The old Church of St. Martin, near the Cathedral, is one 
of the churches where the Reformation was first preached. 
The beginning of the Reformation, Hke all reformatory move- 
ments, was in the open squares and market places — wherever 
the people could be reached. Had it not been for the open-air 
and field-meetings of Whitfield and Wesley, the Wesleyani 
movement would have died ere it reached its second decade ; 
and had it not been for the grove, barn, school-house and 
court-house meetings of the pioneers in the Restoration, it, too, 
would have long since been forgotten. 

Near Basle is the battle-field of St. Jacob — the Thermopylae 
of Switzerland. Here, over 400 years ago, 1,300 Swiss with- 
stood the Dauphin of France with an army 40,000 strong. 
Only ten of the brave Swiss escaped. The vineyards near the 
battle-field produce a very red wine, which is called "Swiss 
Blood." 

Leaving Basle at 4 p. m., we went to Freiburg, in the Black 
Forest, where the dress of the peasantry is very peculiar and 
primitive. Early next morning we started over to the Cathe- 



468 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



dral, and as we got within sight, the people who had been 
attending a special service began pouring out, and, among the 
rest, a thousand German soldiers, with their showy uniforms 




and flashing brass helmets, the contemplation of which took 
away all appetite for cathedrals. It brought to our mind the 
fact that gunpowder was invented in Freiburg, by Berthold 



BASLE TO COLOGNE. 469 

Schwartz, a fine statue of whom is erected in the open square 
in front of the Universit> buildings. 

From Freiburg we proceeded to Heidelberg. It is said to 
derive its name from Heidcl bceren, or myrtles, that once cov- 
ered its hills. It was a Roman village and market-place, but 
never obtained any celebrity until in the thirteenth century it 
was made the capital of Nittelsbach. This honor was dearly 
bought, for its former peace and quiet gave way to a long series 
of sieges, bombardments and pillages, during which its inhab- 
itants suffered indescribable horrors. In consequence of these, 
it is, comparatively, a new town. The only old house in the 
city is one built by a Frenchman, who escaped the St. Bar- 
tholomew Massacre. Near it is the Church of the Holy Ghost, 
which is shared in common by Protestants and Catholics — the 
only such that we saw in our travels. It is, however, divided 
by a partition into two sections. It was in front of St. Peter's 
Church that Jerome of Prague posted his theses, and from its 
churchyard that he addressed the people. The University, 
founded over 500 years ago, is at the head of all universities in 
law and medicine and the number of great professors. It has 
a library collection of 300,000 volumes and 2,000 MSS. It 
would have been much larger but for losses during the various 
captures of the town. One of the conquerors used the con- 
tents of the Library as bedding for his horses. The students 
are divided into various corps and divisions, known principally 
by the shape and color of their caps, and, as in this country, 
there exists a deadly animosity between them. The duelling 
habit still exists among them, though it has degenerated into 
mere play at present. The combatants are carefully protected 
from harm, and a cut on the nose or cheek always terminates 
the encounter. They have a duelling-ground across the Neckar, 
called the Hirchgasse, where every Friday they meet to settle 
their scores. Though it is quite difficult to obtain entrance to 
the room, yet, with the aid of his hotel-keeper, any reputable 
tourist can secure admission to a room from which he can wit- 
ness the encounters. We were offered tickets, if we would 
stop over twenty-four hours ; but we left on Thursday, pre- 



470 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

ferring to spend that day in looking over a far more significant 
battle ground, viz. , Luther's battle-field, at Worms. 

The great object of interest at Heidelberg is the Castle, 
famihar to Americans from Longfellow's unrivalled description. 
It rises high, upon the crest of the Jettenbuhl, surrounded by 
a noble forest of oaks. It was begun, by Elector Rodolph, in 
the fourteenth century, as a palatial fortress, and has been 
added to and repaired in succeeding centuries. In a. d. 1693 
it was so nearly ruined that Louis XIV. boasted that Heidel- 
berg was blotted out. It was afterward repaired, only to be 
destroyed again by a stroke of lightning. It is said to be the 
most remarkable ruin in Europe, except the Alhambra. Each 
of its large divisions is named, and among them are such as 
the Alta-Bau, Ruprechts-Bau, Heinrichs-Bau, and Friedrichs- 
Bau. There is a portion, the English Palace, built to receive 
Princess Elizabeth Stuart. That mettlesome and ambitious 
lady told her husband, who hesitated to accept the crown of 
Bohem.ia, that she " would rather eat dry bread at a king's 
table, than to feast at the board of an Elector." Her after-life 
justifies us in saying that her wish was undoubtedly gratified. 
Near the entrance to the castle-yard is a well, over which is a 
canopy supported by four gray-granite pillars. They have had 
a remarkable history. More than a thousand 5^ears ago they 
were sent by the Pope, from Ravenna, in Italy, to Charle- 
magne, to adorn his palace at Ingelheim. Having seen the 
decay of that place, they stand as grim sentinels o'er the 
crumbling ruins of Rodolph. In the cellar, under the Fried- 
richs-Bau, is the famous Heidelberg-tun, built nearly a century 
and a half ago, and which has only been filled three times. It 
contains, when filled, 49,000 gallons, or 300,000 bottles. In 
order that my readers may be able to appreciate this enormous 
cask, I will remind them that it would contain the contents of 
twenty-five ordinary forty-barrel cisterns. On the top is a 
platform, upon which large parties can dance ; on one occasion 
it held Charles Theodore and his entire court. A queer figure 
stands in front of the immense barrel — the image of one Perikeo, 
the "court fool," who obtained his title because he always 
drank his daily allowance of fifteen double bottles of wine, and 



BASLE TO COLOGNE. 



471 



never went to bed sober. We have just such fools in America, 
but we don't call them " court fools." The proper adjective 
would be out of place here. But we must no longer linger 
amid these old cellars, subterranean passages, and crumbling 
walls, else we shall not be able to spend the night at Worms. 

In half an hour after leaving Heidelberg we arrived at 
Mann-heim, where a gruff old German guard popped his head 
into our car window and shouted out a long roll of jargon, the 
only word of which I could catch was " Worrumps." It was 
the last word he uttered, and came out with a thump. 




JOHN WICKLIFFE. — From the Luther Statue in Worms. 



In going to Worms, it is necessary to take a local train ; and 
while there is no change of cars on the great through routes, one 
may have to shift every half hour on local trains, I was fearful that 
his lingo meant for us to change, so I mildly said, in the best Ger- 
man I could command, " Wirgehennach Worrumps,'' " Yah T 
was the reply, which was not entirely satisfactory. Now, I 
had put my "phrase-book " into my valise, and had forgotten 



472 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



all the German I ever knew. The old gentleman saw I was 
struggling". to utter something, and he stood quietly waiting for 
me to fire it off. At last, to relieve the silence, I again re- 
marked, " Wir gehen nach Worrumps." " F<a:/z .^ jj/^/^ .'./" with an 

»eager nod. I saw I could n't get the German, so I broke out 
with the English, "Do we change cars between here and 
Worms?" The old man stepped backward, and stood looking 
into my eyes to reassure himself that I was not malicious, then • 
stuck out his Bismarck-moustached lip, and quietly remarked, 
" Was V I saw at once that English would not suit him, so I 
dropped into miserably bad French by remarking, ''Changer 
ons de voiture f The old man did n't understand French, but 
he evidently comprehended that it ivas French, which aroused 
his Prussian ire. A thunder storm seemed to gather over his 
frosty visage. He towered up in his German strength, and, 
looking down upon us, the storm broke upon our Frenchy 
heads in one deep, rumbling German, " VasV It seemed to 
me that I could remember every other language but his ; so I 
pelted him again, in Italian, ''Si viuta carazzo per Worms V- 
This last was too much for him. Bang ! went the door, and 
off moved the train. The other passengers seemed very sorry 
for us, and evidently thought our intentions were good, what- 
ever our speech might be. The train stopped on the other 
side of the Rhine, and again our old guard came, and, looking 
directly at Bro. Errett and myself, repeated his long rigama- 
role, ending, as before, with "Worrumps!" He looked as 
though he expected us to do or say something. I was not 
mad, but I zvas grieved by this time. I looked him straight in 
the eye, and proceeded in clear English, " Now, sir, if you will 
just tell us in good, Christian English what you want, we are 
ready to do it. We are two American clergymen, traveling 
through your heathen country, but we have no designs upon it. 
We simply want to go to Worms, to see the statue of Martin 
Luther." I don't know how much more of a speech I would 
have made, for I was by this time getting up steam, and had 
determined that if there was to be a difficulty, it should be in 
English. The passengers were all getting on my side, for they 
laughed and applauded every word I said — not that there was 



BASLE TO COLOGNE. 



473 



anything particularly funny about it, but it is simply a Dutch- 
man's way. He can often see fun where an Englishman can 't. 
The guard's face finally relaxed into a smile, and, reaching into 
the cab, and taking me by the coat, yanked me out ; and Bro. 
E., taking the hint, followed. He took us across the car-sheds, 
and, calling a functionary, handed us over, tipped his cap, and 




STATUE OF Huss. — Luther Monument, Worms 



was gone with the train. That gentleman would not parley — 
he had undoubtedly had something told him. Quietly he 
grabbed our grips, and proceeded to a gloomy waiting-room, 
into which we followed him. No sooner were we in, than, 



474 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



putting down our packs, he whirled out, and locked us in. I 
have thought before that I was sorry for poor newly-arrived 
emigrants in this country, but I never knew how to be sorry 




MARTIN LUTHER. 



till that moment. I formed a resolution that, when I o-ot 
home, if I ever did, I would make it my business to assist them 
on all occasions. In a couple of hours our boss came in and 



BASLE TO COLOGNE. 4/5 

took our grips, and started out, with us following ; and having 
put our things in a cab, motioned us in, grunted " Wor- 
rumps !" and departed. We could see, by the reading on the 
tickets, that if they were not " booked " at Worms, they would 
not be good for the remainder of the journey. But where to 
go, or what to say when I did go, was more than I could tell. 
In my desperation I stepped upon a baggage-truck, and waving 
my hands to attract the attention of the crowd, I yelled out to 
the several hundred people that crowded the station, " If there 
is a man, woman, or child that can speak the English language 
in this crowd, I should like to see him." To my great delight, 
I heard, in reply, " Yes, sir ; I am your man." Oh, it sounded 
musical. The speaker came running up to us, and I told him 
bur situation, and he took us immediately to an official with a 
red cap on his head, who stamped our tickets. Our benefactor 
proved to be a German-American, who had spent some years 
in this country, but had returned to his native place as the 
agent of the Hamburg American Steamship Line. He imme- 
diately constituted himself our guide, and proceeded to show 
us the town. As the only interest we had in Worms was its 
associations with the Reformation, it was not a difficult task. 
The Cathedral is an old structure of red sandstone, with a de- 
cidedly Romanesque appearance, begun in iiio a. d. and fin- 
ished 1470 A. D. On the north of the Cathedral are some old 
red walls, where stood the Bischofshof, where Luther stood 
before the Emperor, Charles V., the legates and nuncios of 
Rome, together with the Barons of Germany, and declared his 
loyalty to truth, in language known to all Protestants : "Here 
I stand ! I can not act otherwise. God help me. Amen." 

In Luther platz, a large open square, stands the Luther 
Monument, a magnificent memorial of the bold leader of 
Protestant thought. Upon a marble pedestal stands the figure of 
Luther clasping the Bible, and looking up into heaven, while 
Huss, Savonarola, Wickliffe and Peter Waldrus sit at his feet, 
all his predecessors, and might have said of him, as the Baptist 
did of Christ, .' ' There cometh One after me, that is preferred 
before me." Around these, in allegorical designs, are repre- 
sented the cities that first embraced the new doctrine. It was 



4/6 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

finished at a cost of nearly ^100,000, and should be seen by 
every Protestant traveler through Germany. It is only two or 
three miles out to Pfiffigheim, where the elm tree is shown 
under which Luther rested on his way to the Diet, and where, 
in response to the entreaties of his followers not to go further, 



he uttered the sentence, "I will go to Worms, even though 
there were as many devils within its walls as there are tiles 
upon its houses. " 

Our new-found friend was very anxious to have us go home 
with him, assuring us that Katrina would be glad to see any 



BASLE TO COLOGNE. 477 

one from America. Refusing to do this, he next insisted upon 
our taking a glass of beer with him. For once I was just a 
little sorry I could not do it, for he had been so kind ; but 
being informed that we were preachers, he very generously ex- 
cused us, and took us back to our hotel. 

Early next morning we took the train for Mayence, an old 
Roman town, and a fortress of Drusus. It is claimed that 
the vision of the fiery Cross appeared to Constantine while en- 
camped with his legions here. It was the birthplace of Guten- 
berg, and his house, as also the one where the first printing- 
office in the world was set up, are shown. The latter has de- 
generated into a beer saloon. In Gutenberg-platz stands a 
monument to that distinguished inventor. There is his figure 
in bronze, and two bas-reliefs, one representing him as exam- 
ining a matrix, and the other as proof-reading. It is the work 
of Thorwaldsen. 

At Mayence we took the steamer for a trip down the 
Rhine. We must confess to a feeling of disappointment in the 
scenery. We had read many rhapsodic descriptions of the 
river, chief of which is Byron's, who describes it as 

" A blending of all beauties : streams, and dells, 
Fruit, foliage, crag wood, corn -field, mountain, vine, 
And chiefless castles, breaking stern farewells 
From grey but leafy walls, where ruin dwells." 

The river was swollen and muddy, the rain was falling, and, 
taken altogether, it was not the kind of a day to call out the 
poetic fire within us; so we looked upon the Classic River as a 
muddy, bad-smelling stream, of which we soon had enough. 

In about an hour and a half we passed a little village on the 
left, known as Bingen, immortalized to the American youth as 
the home of the dying soldier, whose heart went back to 
" Sweet Bingen on the Rhine." On a rocky isle just below 
Bingen, stands a lone tower, known as the "Mouse Tower." 
Southey, in his poetic way, tells us that it was the property of 
one Bishop Hatto, who had plenty of corn while there was a 
general famine. He promised the poor, starving wretches that 
on a certain day he would open his store-house of grain, and 
joyfully they repaired to his house. The old Bishop allowed 



478 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



them all to congregate in his barn till it could hold no more, 
and then fastened the door, and burned them up. 




THE MONUMENT. 



" I' faith ! 't is an excellent bonfire ! quoth he, 
And the country is greatly obliged to me 
For ridding it, in these times forlorn, 
Of rats that only consume the corn." 

So the old Bishop went to his bed, and slept like "an inno- 
cent man;" but, waking up in the morn, he was troubled to 



BASLE TO COLOGNE. 479 

find that the rats had eaten his picture out of the frame. Then 
came a man and told him that the rats had eaten all his corn, 
soon to be followed by another, who told him the rats were 
coming that way. The old Bishop fled to his tower on the 
Rhine , but the rats rolled on. They swam the river ; they 
climbed up the tower — 

" And in at the windows and in at the door, 

And through the walls by thousands they 

Pour ; 

And down through the ceiling, and up through 

The floor, 

From the right to the left, and from behind and 

Before ; 

From within and without, from above and 

Below, 

And all at once to the Bishop they go. 

" They have whetted their teeth against the 

Stones, 

And now they pick the Bishop's bones ; 

.They gnawed the flesh from every limb, 

For they were sent to do judgment on him." 

That is a pretty tough story ; but if you want to get any 
good out of a Rhine trip, you must n't be tender about touo-h 
stories ! 

One more hour brought us to Oberwesel, where a chapel 
is dedicated to St. Werner. This saint was crucified when a 
boy, by some Jews, who threw his body into the Rhine ; and 
instead of floating down stream, it started up against the cur- 
rent, and made its way to Bacharach. He was, however, cap- 
tured and brought back, and canonized, and this chapel was 
built over his remains. A short distance below Oberwesel is 
a lone rock — the only one left of a range of rocks known as 
The Seven Sisters. They were once lovely maidens, but per- 
sistently refused the suits of the young men of the neighbor- 
hood, until they were turned into stone, as a punishment. 
This should be a terrible warning to young women who are in 
the habit of not caring for attentions and addresses from the 
young men of their community! 



48o 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



Below the Seven Sisters are the rocks of the Lorelei. 
Mrs. Hemans has told the legend, in her "Song of the 
Lorelei," of the siren who dwelt here and lured the sailors 
into the rocks, where their boats were wrecked. The plain 
prose of the matter is, that there is a most wonderful echo in 
the rocks, and the sailors, in listening to the echo, would for- 
get to attend to business, and their boat would be drawn into 
the whirlpool below, and wrecked. They claim that the out- 
line of the cliff is a good profile of Napoleon the First. I 
could not see any resemblance ; but possibly, if I had been a 
German, and lived seventy-five years ago, I could have seen a 




CHAMBER OF HORRORS. 



profile of the Frenchman almost any way I would look. 

But time would fail me to tell of St. Goar and Rheinfels, 
of Braubach, with its gloomy Marksburg Castle, in which is 
the horrible pit into which its prisoners were lowered by a 
chain windlass. The popular superstition is that the pit is 
still haunted, and if a pea or pin be thrown in, it will disturb 
the ghosts and a cry be heard at the mouth of it. In this also 
is a Chamber of Torture, where the rack, thumb-screw and 



BASLE TO COLOGNE. 48 1 

crank did their cruel work, and now, when the night-wind 
pierces the chinks of the rocks and penetrates the chamber, it 
wakens afresh the ghostly cries of the sufferers, and thus the 
martyrs of days gone by cry on and on for vengeance. 

Coblentz, the largest town on the Rhine, between Mayence 
and Cologne, is situated at the confluence of the Moselle and 
Rhine. It is a city of 30,000 inhabitants. Near the junction 
of the two rivers is the old church of St. Castors, in which 
Charlemagne divided his empire among his grandchildren. 
In front of this church is a fountain erected by Napoleon, and 
bearing an inscription that it was erected on his way to conquer 
Russia. A few months later the Russian forces came to it in 
their pursuit of the fleeing French army, and the commander 
added the following, ' ' Seen and approved by us. Russian Com- 
mciJidant of the city of Coblentz, fan. i, 181^." 

A short distance below Coblentz is Andernach, identical 
with the old Roman town of Antun-nacum. Julius Caesar 
erected a wooden bridge across the Rhine at this spot. It has 
a fine old church and watch tower, which was badly damaged 
by French cannon years ago. Those who have read Long- 
fellow's Hyperion, remember his " Legend of Andernach." 
There was once a poor old woman in Andernach, whose name 
was Frau Martha, and she lived all alone in a house by herself, 
and loved all the saints and the blessed Virgin, and was as 
good as an angel, and sold tarts down the Rhein-krahn. But 
her house was very old, and the roof-tiles were broken, and she 
was too poor to get new ones ; and the rain kept coming in, 
and no Christian soul in Andernach would help her. But the 
Frau Martha was a good woman, and never did anybody any 
harm, but went to mass every morning, and sold tarts by the 
Rhein-krahn. Now, one dark, windy night, when all the good 
Christians in Andernach were asleep in the feathers, Frau 
Martha, who lay under the roof, heard a great noise over her 
head and in her chamber. — drip ! drip ! drip ! — as if the rain 
were dropping down through the broken tiles. Dear soul ! and 
sure enough it was. And then there was a pounding and 
hammering overhead, as if somebody were at work on the roof, 
and she thought it was Pelz Nickel tearing the tiles off, because 



482 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



she had not been to confession often enough. So she began to 
pray ; and the faster she said her Paternoster and Ave Maria, 
the faster Pelz Nickel pounded and pulled ; and drip ! drip ! 




ANDERNACH. 



THE INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH. 



drip ! it went all around in the dark chambes, till the poor 

woman was frightened out of her wits, and ran to the window 

. to call for help. Then in a moment all was still — death-still. 



BASLE TO COLOGNE. 483 

But she saw a light streaming through the mist and rain, and a 
great shadow on the house opposite. And then somebody 
came down from the top of her house by a ladder, and had a 
lantern in his hand ; and he took the lantern on his shoulder, 
and passed down the street. But she could not see clearly, 
because the window was streaked with rain. And in the 
morning the old broken tiles were found scattered about the 
street, and there were new ones on the roof; and the old house 
has never leaked to this blessed day. As soon as mass was 
over, Frau Martha told the priest what had happened, and he 
said it was not Pelz Nickel, but without doubt St. Castor or St. 
Florian. Then she went to the market, and told Frau Bridget 
all about it, and Frau Bridget said that two nights before Hans 
Claus, the cooper, had heard a great pounding in his shop, and' 
in the morning found new hoops on all his hogsheads, and that 
a man with a lantern and a ladder had been seen riding out of 
town at midnight on a donkey ; and that the same night the 
old windmill at Closter St. Thomas had been mended, and the 
old gate of the churchyard at Feldkirche made as good as new, 
though nobody knew how the man got across the river. , . . 
And so it went on for some time ; and whenever the man with 
the lantern had been seen walking through the street at night, 
so sure as the morning came some work had been done for the 
sake of some good soul ; everybody knew he did it ; and yet 
nobody could find out who he was nor where he lived, for 
whenever anybody came near him he blew out his light and 
turned down another street, and suddenly disappeared, nobody 
could tell how. And some said it was Rubenzohl, some Pelz 
Nickel, and some St. Anthony-on-the-Heath. Now, one 
stormy night a poor, sinful creature was wandering about the 
street with her babe in her arms, and she was hungry and cold, 
and no soul in Andernach would take her in. And when she 
came to the church where the great crucifix stands, she saw no 
light in the little chapel at the corner, but she sat down on a 
stone at the foot of the cross and began to pray, and prayed 
till she fell asleep with her poor little babe on her bosom. 
But she did not sleep long, for a bright light shone full in her 
face, and when she opened her eyes she saw a pale man with a 



484 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

lantern standing right before her. He was almost naked, and 
there was blood upon his hands and body, and great tears in 
his beautiful eyes, and his face was like the face of the Saviour 
on the cross. Not a single word did he say to the poor woman, 
but looked at her compassionately, and gave her a loaf of 
bread, and then took the little babe in his arms and kissed it. 
Then the mother looked up to the great crucifix, but there was 
no image there ; and she shrieked and fell down, as if she were 
dead, and there she was found with her child ; and a few days 
after they both died, and were buried together in one grave. 
And nobody would have believed her story if a woman, who 
lived at the corner, had not gone to the window when she 
heard the scream, and seen the figure hang the lantern up in 
its place, and then set the ladder against the wall and go up 
and nail itself to the cross. Since that night it has never moved 
again." 

Though this may seem but a simple legend of a supersti- 
tious people, it contains a grand lesson. If Andernach Christ- 
ians had done their duty to the poor woman, the dear Master 
would have been glorified in them ; and if we do our duty, the 
Crucified One will not need to come down to earth to assist 
the unfortunate, for, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of 
these my brethren, ye did it unto me." But while we muse, 
our steamer has passed Rolandseck, Unkel, Drachenfels, 
Bonn, and now we find ourselves on the dock at Cologne, our 
next stopping-place. 



COLOGNE TO LIVERPOOL. 

Cologne is noted, among Americans, for its manufacture of 
Eau-de-Cologne, or Cologne Water, and very naturally will be 
associated with pleasant smells. It manufactures delicate per- 
fumes on a large scale, but they seem to be for foreign con- 
sumption, and not home use. The readers of Coleridge will 
call to mind his poetic description of the place : 

" In Cologne, that town of monks and bones, 

And pavemeiits fanged with murderous stones, 

And rags, and hags, and hideous wenches, 

I counted twoand seventy stenches ! 

All well-defined and separate stinks' 

Ye nymphs ! that reign o'er sewers and sinks, 

The river Rhine, it is well known. 

Doth wash the city of Cologne 

But tell me, nymphs, what power divine 

Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine ?" 

Eau-de-Cologne was first made by one Johann Maria Farina, 
and there are at least a dozen shops in the city bearing the sign 
of the " Only Original Johann." 

The Cathedral of Cologne is probably the finest specimen of 
its kind in the world. It is a perfect forest of spires and tow- 
ers, and was commenced in 1248 a. d. , to be finished in 1880. 
One great beauty is the stained glass, without doubt the finest 
in the world. It is, also, not without its share of sacred relics, 
so common to all Catholic cathedrals. In the treasury, they 
will show you the skulls of Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar, 
the three wise men of the East, who brought offerings to the 
infant Christ. They will only show you the back of the skulls, 
through a screen ; but these are richly set in stones— just w/iy, 
I was not able to make out. I presume, if the Reformation 

had not occurred, they would, by this time, have shown you 

485 



486 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

the bodies of the wise men ; but the rise of Protestantism was 
a great damage to the relic market. 

Near the Cathedral is the old Church of St. Ursula, the 
Commander-in-Chief of the Eleven Thousand Virgins. She 
was the daughter of Diognetus, king of Britain. A heathen 
prince, Holofernes, demanded her hand in marriage, which she 
refused until visited by a heavenly messenger, at whose bidding 
she accepted, upon condition that he embrace the Christian re- 
ligion, and she be allowed three years in which to make a pil- 
grimage to Rome. They went up the Rhine in a ship to Basle 
(ii,ooo of them), and then over the Alps to Rome, where they 
were received by Pope Cyriacus, who returned with them. At 
Cologne they were attacked and killed by the wild Huns, because 
they refused to break their vows of chastity. They were buried 
upon the spot, with a headstone containing each virgin's name. 
This was furnished by a gentleman escort, who had sought 
protection in a cave early in the fight. He either had a re- 
markable faculty for remembering names and faces, or was good 
at originating them. Later on, a Greek, named Clemantius, 
erected a church, and the walls of it are adorned with the arm, 
leg and skull bones of the virgins. They are arranged in all 
sorts of fancy designs and emblems, and, as Hood has re- 
marked, furnish a specimen of very chaste architecture. Now, 
that the whole of this story is literally true, I am not perfectly 
confident ; but that there is a church filled with bones, which 
they claim as those of the virgins, I am certain. The only 
little point about which there is room to differ, is the original 
proprietorship of the aforesaid bones. In the center of the 
sacristy is a coffin containing the bones of St. Ursula and the 
skulls of. a few of her favorites. In the same room, also, are 
the chains with which they bound St. Peter, and also one of 
the clay vessels used by our Saviour at the wedding-feast of 
Cana. It has changed somewhat, having turned into 
porphyty, and shrunk up till it would not hold more than one of 
the six firkins it formerly held ; but if one lets little matters of 
detail trouble him, he will not get much comfort out of his 
visits to Catholic cathedrals. 




COLOGNE CATHEDRAL. 



Page 487. 



COLOGNE TO LIVERPOOL. 489 

Near St. Ursula's, is St. Gereon's Church. He was the 
captain of the martyrs of the Theban Legion, a. d. 302. The 
Roman army, then encamped at St. Maurice, was ordered to 
offer sacrifices to Jupiter. The Theban Legion, one of the 
bravest, refused to do so, whereupon every tenth man was 
slain. This was repeated, till all were killed except a few, who 
escaped, and became hermits. I looked upon this church with 
great satisfaction, for if it does not preserve the memory of 
those men, it is a monument to the fact that men in all ages 
have been willing to die rather than be disloyal to that 
Redeemer who, "having loved his own, loved them even unto 
the end. " 

From Cologne we proceeded to Aix la Chapelle, known in 
the German as Aachen. It is famous in history for the numer- 
ous treaties and conferences of European nations that have 
been held there. The Cathedral is the oldest in Germany, 
being erected by Charlemagne. The tomb of Charlemagne is 
marked by a marble slab under the chandeher. In the twelfth 
century the tomb was opened, and the body was found seated 
upon a marble throne with a copy of the gospels before him. 
The sacred relics are divided into the Lesser and Greater relics. 
Among the former are, part of Aaron's Rod, the Virgin 
Mary's Hair, Sponge that Christ used on the Cross, part of the 
true Cross, and the leathern Girdle of Christ. The Greater 
treasures : the Cotton Robe Mary wore at the birth of Christ, 
Christ's Swaddling Bands, the Cloth on which John the Bap- 
tist's Head was laid, and the Scarf worn by our Lord when 
crucified. Why they should make the invidious distinction 
among the above, I can 't say, but they have done so. After 
leaving Aix la Chapelle, we did not stop till we got to Brus- 
sels, which is the capital of Belgium. It is the finest place of 
its size that we visited and is a sort of miniature Paris. It is 
noted for its beautiful parks and open squares, fine streets with 
modern improvements. In Brussels we saw the electric motor 
on street cars for the first time. In the Place des Martyrs is a 
monument to 445 citizen martyrs to Belgic liberty. It was 
built by Maria Theresa over the spot where they are buried. 
In the Grand Place, in front of the Hotel de Ville (City Hall), 



490 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE, 



the historic hfe of Brussels centers. In this open square the 
Counts Egmont and Horn, together with a score of others, met 
their fate for daring to brave the power of the King of Spain. 
From the windows of the Maison du Roi, which faced the City- 
Hall, the bloody Duke de Alva, the tool of the Spanish king, 
witnessed the execution. Three thousand Spanish soldiers 
were drawn up in battle array around the scaffold, to prevent 
any outbreak of the people. The company appointed brought 
out Egmont first, who had been shorn of his collar to prepare 
for the execution. As they were about to bind his hands, he 
requested them not to do it, and they desisted. He ascended 
the scaffold and walked across it two or three times, expressing 
his regrets that he was not permitted to die sword in hand, 
fighting for his king. After repeating the Lord's Prayer and 
commending his spirit to God, he threw the black cap over his 
head, and stood erect with folded hands till the executioner, 
who had been hid behind the drapery of the scaffold, stepped 
out and severed his head at a single blow. Horn followed his 
companion, and the bodies, after remaining two hours upon" 
the scaffold, were delivered to their friends. They were car- 
ried by a stately procession of Guilds to the Church of St. 
Gudule, where they lay in state and were viewed by the pub- 
lic. This was one of the many acts of cruelty which the peo- 
ple of the Netherlands were compelled to suffer at the hands 
of bigoted Spaniards for the cause of political and religious 
freedom. But led by such men as William the Silent, they 
bravely held their own against fearful odds until they purchased 
the liberty of which they were so worthy. The Church of St. 
Gudule is now the Cathedral, and is the burial-place of many 
of the brave Belgians. In this church I witnessed the worship 
of the Virgin Mary to its full extent. In front of the High 
Altar was a statue of the Virgin, dressed in the richest cos- 
tume and with candles all around her. Before it was a large 
crowd on their knees and looking at her, with anxious looks, 
which told their faith in her divine power. Here, also, they 
have some wafers that were made in the fourteenth century. 
One Good Friday some Belgian Jews got at them, and stabbed 
them to express their contempt. They immediately began to 



COLOGNE TO LIVERPOOL. 



493 



bleed, and the good Catholics, seeing these Jews had crucified 
their Saviour afresh, fell on them and tore their flesh from the 




V/ILLIAM THE SILENT. 



bones. The wafers are exhibited once a year. That is the 
Catholic side of it. I presume, if the Jews could be heard 
from, they would say it was one of the hundreds of such tales 



494 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



that were trumped up in order to give the rulers a chance to 
confiscate Jewish wealth. From the Cathedral we went to the 
Museum of Antiquities. This is the old Port de Hal, where 
the Duke of Alva imprisoned his Protestant victims. It con- 
tains a large collection of arms and armour of mediaeval times. 




^XVj^TIVS 



DUKE OF ALVA. 

We saw, among other things, the cradle of Charles V., Em- 
peror of Spain, and the bow and mantle of the unfortunate 
Montezuma, of Mexico. 

From Brussels we went to Antwerp, where we spent a day. 
There are a number of legends to account for the name of the 




^' H^^Y^. 



QUENTIN MATSYS' WELL, ANTWERP. 



Page 495. 



COLOGNE TO LIVERPOOL. 49/ 

city, but the most simple one is that it is composed of " ae'nt- 
werf " — " on the wharf." In the time of Charles V., Antwerp 
was the commercial metropolis of Europe. Five thousand 
merchants met daily on its exchange, and 2,500 ships were 
often moored at its wharves. It controlled the trade of other 
nations as London does to-day. It is known in the art world 
as the City of Rubens. Antwerp is full of Rubens, but it is 
also the birthplace of many of the distinguished Flemish 
artists. Floris, Quentin Matsys, Van Dyck, Van Oort, Ten- 
iers, Jordaens, and many others, claim Antwerp as their birth- 
place. The Cathedral is in the Place Verte, and is the central 
attraction of the city. Its spire is one of the tallest, and its 
sculptured tracery is so fine that Charles V. said it should be 
kept in a glass case. Napoleon compared it to Mechlin lace. 
Its chime of sixty bells rings out every seven minutes. The 
largest of them is named Carolus, for Charles V., weighs 16,000 
pounds, and requires sixteen men to ring it. In the south 
transept hangs Rubens' "Descent from the Cross," the grand- 
est picture in all the galleries of Europe. The lifeless body of 
the dead Saviour, the pale faces of his followers, and the 
heart-broken expression on the face of the Christ-mother, are 
enough to wring tears from the stoutest hearts and eyes. There 
is, among many others, a marvellous painting on marble, of the 
head of the Saviour, by Leonardo da Vinci. 

Adjoining the Cathedral is a well, over which is a wrought 
iron curb surmounted by an image of the giant Brabo, who, it 
is said, used to live where Antwerp now stands. The frame is 
the handiwork of a young blacksmith, who plied his trade 
there early in the sixteenth century. Loving the daughter of 
an artist, and being rejected because of his trade, he began 
the study of art, and became the famous Quentin Matsys, 
whose pictures now adorn the galleries of England, Holland 
and Austria. It is a great place of resort for the young women 
of to-day. 

East of the Cathedral is the Church of St. Jacques, behind 
whose high altar is the burial-place of the Rubens family. 
The Academy of Painting, near by, contains specimens from 
the pencils of all the Flemish masters, having fourteen by 



498 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

Rubens and six by Van Dyck. The Chair of Rubens, pro- 
tected by a glass case, stands at the entrance. The Steen is 
near the fish-market, on the river, and was once a prison of the 
inquisition, a part of the Antwerp Castle. Its dreary stone 
dungeons, with their terrible instruments of torture, bear wit- 
ness to the awful crimes that have been enacted by the inquisi- 
tion in the name of our holy religion. 

One of the queer features of the city was the driving of 
dogs hitched to the large milk carts. They evidently do not 
take kindly to it, often giving expression to their disgust in a 
prolonged howl, often cut short by the application of the lash. 
One of the greatest curiosities of Antwerp is the old printing 
house of Christian Plantin. That eminent printer was a 
Parisian, but foreseeing the troubles that were coming upon 
printers in that city from the jealousies of the Catholic Church, 
removed to Antwerp in 1555, where, after varying successes, 
he at last established a large business, which was transferred to 
his son-in-law Moretus, and remained in the immediate family 
till it was bought by the city in 1875. From the middle of the 
seventeenth century the publishing and printing was confined 
to Catholic mass and prayer-books, for which Plantin had re- 
ceived a special charter from Philip II. for the Spanish domin- 
ions. In the beginning of this century the charter was with- 
drawn, and for three-quarters of a century the establishment 
was closed. There is a printing office with its old-time hand- 
presses, proof-reader's room with old proof-sheets scattered 
around, type room, composing room, and the room of Justus 
Lipsius, where that great philologist used to stay when visiting 
his printers. Returning to Brussels that night, the next day 
found us at Paris, and the end of the week in London again, 
having crossed the English Channel by the shortest possible 
route. 

After having gone over so many Oriental lands, England 
seemed quite a young country, and we did not tarry so long as 
we expected. We spent a couple of weeks in London, devoting 
one day to The Tower, where so many distinguished persons 
have suffered imprisonment and death. It stands upon the 
Thames bank, and is supposed to have been established by the 




^^>^VV,x.V ,. 



THE STERN IN ANTWERP. 



Page 499. 



COLOGNE TO LIVERPOOL. 



5or 



Romans to command the river. It was also used as a Treasury 
and Mint. Ingots of silver bearing Roman letters have been 




found in excavating in its foundations. William the Conqueror 
built the White Tower, and additions were made to it by his 



502 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



sons. Is was in the Tower that King John was besieged by 
the Barons, which led to his signing the Magna Charta. Henry 
VIII. brought his wife, Catherine of Aragon, to the Tower 
after her coronation, only to displace her with a rival that later 
suffered death there. Lady Jane Grey was beheaded on the 




Tower Green. The visitor enters by the Middle Tower; then 
comes the Byward Tower, the Bloody Tower, the Bell Tower 
and the Record Tower. In the last are kept the Crown Jewels. 
They consist of the following crowns : Queen Victoria's Crown,' 



COLOGNE TO LIVERPOOL. 



505 



St. Edward's Crown, Prince of Wales' Crown, Queen's Con- 
sort Crown, Marie D'Este Crown. With these are the Scep- 
ters of St. Edward, Royal Scepter, Scepter of the Dove, 
Queen's Scepter, Ivory Scepter, and Scepter of Queen Mary. 
Windsor Castle is about twenty miles from the city, and is 
reached by the Great Western Railway. Windsor is from 
Windle-shore, or winding shore, and alludes to the meandering 
course of the river. It was bought by William the Conqueror, 
for the purpose of erecting a castle, which has been extended 
and improved by nearly all the English monarchs to the present 








HOLYROOD PALACE. 



day. The building has two courts, between which rises the 
Round Tower. St. George's Chapel was devoted to the 
Knights of the Garter. Near Beaufort Chapel is the tomb of 
the Queen's father, the Duke of Kent. This place also con- 
tains the bodies of Henry VIII. and Jane Seymour, his wife. 
East of St. George's Chapel is Albert Chapel, originally built 
as a place of burial for Henry VII., and afterward given to 
Cardinal Wolsey. Queen Victoria recently repaired and 
named it in honor of her husband. The Round Tower was 
used as a prison till late years. In the state apartments are a 



5o6 



AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 



Queen's Audience Chamber, Queen's Presence Chamber, 
Guard Chamber, Throne Room, Grand Reception Room, and 
Grand Dining Room. Besides the above, there are ball-rooms, 
vestibules aud small chambers, almost without number. 




One of the most interesting spots in London, to me, was a 
plain brick chapel, in the yard of which were buried John, 
Theophilus and Susannah Wesley, George and Ann Whitfield, 
and Adam Clarke. 



COLOGNE TO LIVERPOOL. 50/ 

At Smithfields we saw the spot where John Rogers, John 
Bradford and Philpot sjaffered death by fire for the faith of 
Christ, in 1555. The inscription marking the spot read, "The 
noble army of martyrs praise thee." 

From London we went to Southport, and thence to Liver- 
pool for Sunday, and Monday niorning we visited the old city 
of Chester, from whence we drove out to Hawarden Castle and 
Church, the home and worshiping place of Hon. W. E. Glad- 
stone, England's greatest living statesman. We returned 
through the private grounds of the Duke of Westminster, and 
after a pleasant visit with friends in Chester, reached Liverpool 
Tuesday evening. Bro. Errett, having some other matters to 
engage him, could not make the tour of Scotland, so Bro. A. 
Martin, the pastor of the Liverpool Church, accompanied me. 

Leaving Liverpool early Wednesday morning, we found 
ourselves, at 5 p. m., at Edinboro, and, chartering a carriage, 
drove to many important points of interest before night, visit- 
ing in the old town Holyrood Palace, the house of John Knox, 
and Edinboro Castle. 

Next morning, starting by early train, we passed Stirling 
Castle, and alighting at Callender, took a Highland Stage 
Coach for a ride over the Trossachs, passing on the way many 
of the spots made historic in Scott's "Lady of the Lake." 
At Loch Katrine we took steamer again, passing the length of 
that lovely sheet of water to alight at Stronachlachar, where we 
again took stage over to Loch Lomond, passing the home and 
haunts of Rob Roy McGregor. At Inversnaid we took 
steamer down Loch Lomond, having a good view for quite a 
while of the bald crown of Ben Lomond. 

At 5 p. M. we found ourselves in Glasgow, the largest city 
in Scotland. Staying over night, we reached Edinboro at 10 
A. M., and at 1 1 were on the train for Melrose, and after visit- 
ing its magnificent abbey ruin we proceeded by carriage to 
Abbotsford, the home of Walter Scott, and thence to Dry- 
burgh Abbey, where he is buried. At 4 p. m. we found our- 
selves at St. Boswell's, waiting for the Flying Scotchman to 
take us back to Liverpool, having spent by far the busiest 
three days of the entire trip. Saturday afternoon at 3 o'clock 



508 AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE. 

we bade farewell to England, and at 6 p. m. the next Saturday 
we found ourselves in New York harbor. Here, dear reader, 
we take our leave of you. We have wandered, I trust, pleas- 
antly through many lands ; and with minds enriched by the 
treasures of travel and hearts renewed and confirmed in the 
Truth of God, we shall henceforth lay the rest of our earth-life 
upon the altar of His service, shall know but one flag — the flag 
with the single star — the Star of Bethlehem — and when the 
pilgrimage of life is ended we shall hope to enter into the rest 
that remaineth to the people of God. 



